About Nicole Schmitt
Nicole Schmitt is the executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. She discusses beluga whales and why the Cook Inlet population is classified as endangered. There used to be about 1700 of them with about 300 now. Their population is declining around two and a half to 3% per year. She also talks about the pros and cons of working in Alaska, the largest state. Nicole believes there is no level of volunteerism that's too small. So she encourages supporting organizations in your community or in areas that you care about who are doing that work.
Alaska Wildlife Alliance & beluga whales, voice for Arctic Health
There was a need as far back as 1978 for an organization dedicated to the protection of Alaska's wildlife. AWA started in the 70s because during that time there was nuclear bomb testing underwater out on the Aleutian Islands. It led to the mass mortality of a lot of marine mammals. And so in our founding documents, Alaska Wildlife Alliance was actually started for the protection of marine mammals. Today, one of their primary focus is the Cook Inlet beluga. They're really charismatic, very social and uniquely, they have a really large vocal range. They click, they whistle, they squeal, they kind of make these chirping sounds. They're commonly regarded as the ‘canaries of the sea’ because they can sound like birds and whales. It's kind of amazing. This beluga stock is highly endangered with their population declining annual. To help the whales there needs to be a reduction in the number of contaminants that are in Cook Inlet. But there also are a lot of threats. The belugas are very noise sensitive so shipping and development is really impactful on them. There's dozens of things that kind of cumulatively keep their population down.
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00:00:03 Pam Ferris-Olson Today on the Wo(men) Mind the Water Artivist Series podcast on womenmindthewater.com, I'm speaking with Nicole Schmitt. Nicole is the executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. She believes that wildlife has an intrinsic value that extends beyond that of having a direct use for humans. Today we're going to discuss beluga whales and why one distinctive population, the one located in Cook Inland, south of Anchorage, Alaska, is classified as endangered.
00:00:38 Pam Ferris-Olson Welcome Nicole. You have an adventurous spirit. You've worked as a teenager on a salmon boat in Alaska and later studied in Beijing, China. Since then, you have worked for a number of government agencies and nonprofits concerned with wilderness. Tell me, what is the source of your adventurousness?
00:01:01 Nicole Schmitt Well, thank you for having me, Pam. It's a joy to be here. I think I was really lucky to grow up in a family that really prioritized being outside in a very unstructured way. So I think the core of my adventurousness or just approach to being outside and being in relationship with places and wildlife is really grounded in my family. We did a lot of hiking and boating and long days being outside without a lot of maps or a lot of really strict planning. So I think that ingrained some skills in just being able to observe and be outside and be capable at some level.
00:01:48 Pam Ferris-Olson Great. So what are some of your more memorable experiences growing up with wildlife?
00:01:54 Nicole Schmitt I have many. One of the ones that made the biggest impression on me was that we had a black bear that hibernated under our deck and had cubs just right outside my window. So we had a very close relationship to a lot of black bear families growing up. And that really instilled the importance of coexistence and just seeing those animals in daily life and how to relate to them. And then in the water, some of my favorite memories are of dall porpoises who get very excited when you're driving at a certain speed on the boat and they'll play in the wake. They kind of look like little orcas and they'll surf the waves and they're just pretty magical.
00:02:43 Pam Ferris-Olson So what drew you to Alaska? You didn't grow up there did you?
00:02:47 Nicole Schmitt I did in part. My family, my dad lives here. And so I split my upbringing basically between Colorado and Alaska. And so that I would be here every summer to work in different capacities. At one point on a commercial fishing boat or operation. And so yeah. Alaska has been a part of my life since I've been born.
00:03:16 Pam Ferris-Olson It seems remarkable that there was a need as far back as 1978 for an organization dedicated to the protection of Alaska's wildlife. After all, Alaska is the largest state. It's nearly two and a half times larger than any other. Nearly one third of the state is considered wilderness. So Alaska is home to many animals, including a population of whales, the Cook Inlet beluga whales. They're actually listed as endangered. So tell us about the beluga whale. What does a beluga look like?
00:03:52 Nicole Schmitt Yes well, as you mentioned, AWA started in the 70s and actually that was because during that time there was nuclear bomb testing underwater out on the Aleutian Islands. Which was leading to the mass mortality of a lot of marine mammals. I mean, we're talking like thousands of seals and sea otters after those explosions were washing up on shores. And it was a group of Alaskans along with others that did a big outreach event to raise awareness about that issue. And when they were done with that, they came back to their homes in Alaska and wanted to make sure that as the state was navigating its new statehood and as we were looking at the designation of public lands and waters, that there was an organization that could speak for the wildlife. And so in our founding documents, Alaska Wildlife Alliance was actually started for the protection of marine mammals. And we've since diversified, but that's very dear to our heart organizationally.
00:04:54 Nicole Schmitt But belugas are really wonderful. We don't have favorites, but what do they look like? So beluga whales, the adults are between 11 and 15 feet long. The females are smaller than the males. The males can get up to about 18 feet sometimes. And they can be as heavy as around 3,300 pounds. And they're really charismatic, they're very social. And uniquely, they have a really large vocal range. So they click, they whistle, they squeal, they kind of make these chirping sounds. So they're commonly regarded as the ‘canaries of the sea’ because they can sound like birds and whales. It's kind of amazing.
00:05:45 Nicole Schmitt I encourage everyone to go listen to audio of belugas. Another key characteristic of belugas is unlike other whales, their necks are not fused, so they can look around and they can have more mobility in their head. And they also are characterized by a couple of things that make them unique in the whale world in that they have this really large melon on the top of their head. And that, we think, is used to help them with echolocation and to modulate their sounds but it's kind of this big, bulbous, jelly-like bump on the top of their head. And then also uniquely and what makes them so adapted to Arctic climates is they do not have a dorsal fin. So a lot of our whales have that big fin kind of on the ridge of their spine that goes up. Belugas don't have that. They have a dorsal ridge, but not a fin.
00:06:38 Nicole Schmitt And that's really important because they live in Arctic environments and so that fin doesn't get caught up in ice. It allows them to swim in really icy environments and that ridge can help them break through ice when they need to breathe, but it also can conserve heat since they don't have this kind of appendage sticking up. So they're really wonderful.
00:07:00 Nicole Schmitt You can tell a baby beluga from an adult because the babies are born dark gray and then as they age, they turn white. And so it's really special to see. You can just see the kiddos, swimming with their pod.
00:07:16 Pam Ferris-Olson So are belugas only found in Alaska?
00:07:18 Nicole Schmitt They're really magical. And what makes the place when the newborns are born, they're around 5 feet long. They're not. They're so pretty big, but they are an Arctic size of Arctic whale species, so they live in Alaska, Canada, Greenland. So are belugas only found in Alaska? I mean, they evolved in the Arctic. And so you can see that physiologically, as I was just talking about their lack of dorsal fin. But the Arctic environments are really good food sources for them. So they're really adaptable. I think that's probably the key word for belugas.
00:08:00 Nicole Schmitt We will find them in the spring through fall months swimming up rivers in the search of food. They can go miles and miles up rivers. And then in marine environments, they can dive very deep. We're talking like 1,000 meters deep for up to 25 minutes in search of food. They're very opportunistic feeders, so they'll eat anything from shrimp to fish, large fish and salmon. But they live in and thrive in cold water.
00:08:32 Nicole Schmitt About 40% of their body weight is blubber. So they're very well insulated. And as I said, with that lack of dorsal fin, they're able to navigate ice really well in ways that some other whales aren't. So in Alaska, we have five stocks of belugas that live around the state. And the Cook Inlet beluga whale population is the only beluga stock in Alaska that is endangered. And it's not only endangered, it's deemed as being critically endangered.
00:09:02 Pam Ferris-Olson And why is that?
00:09:06 Nicole Schmitt It’s the $1,000,000 question. There's been an interagency and interorganizational effort to recover these whales. Alaska Wildlife Alliance and some of our partner nonprofits were actually the ones to successfully petition that these whales be listed on the Endangered Species Act. That happened right around 2009 and 2010. And since then, there's been a recovery plan that's been put together to recover these whales. There used to be about 1700 of them. There's now right around 300 and their population is declining around two and a half to 3% per year. There is no like silver bullet reason why there's no single source. The summation of what we think is happening is death by a thousand cuts. In other words, there are these cumulative impacts that make it very hard for belugas to survive in this environment. And so as an organization through literature reviews and research and lots and lots of intentional strategy, our focus, the two components that we think are the most important to helping this species recover are: to make sure that they have enough food because there's a lot of research to indicate that if they had plentiful of healthy food, they would be more equipped to resist some of those other threats that they're facing. So we need them to have more food and we need a cleaner environment.
00:10:30 Nicole Schmitt So we need to reduce the number of contaminants that are in Cook Inlet. But there are a lot of threats.They're very noise sensitive. So shipping and development is really impactful for them. And yeah, there's dozens of things that kind of cumulatively keep their population down.
00:10:50 Nicole Schmitt For those of you who have not been to Cook Inlet, it's a very shallow, very large inlet. I believe it's larger than Chesapeake Bay, so it's big. And it's very, it looks like chocolate milk, like it's very silty. And so I look at the belugas out in other parts of Alaska where the water is crystal clear blue. Looking at Cook Inlet and it seems like a difficult place for them to survive. But what defines this population as a distinct population is because they do not leave. We have no evidence that they're leaving. And in fact, the mouth of the inlet, there used to be belugas kind of on the southern side where it opens into the broader ocean. And what we're finding is that they're actually concentrating higher up in the inlet. And so there, no evidence to suggest that they're leaving and they are distinct to Cook Inlet.
00:11:48 Pam Ferris-Olson So is your organization doing anything to assist the Cook Inland Belugas?
00:11:55 Nicole Schmitt We are doing many things. Yes, it's probably one of our biggest programs. In fact, next week we're having our third water quality summit for Cook Inlet where we bring together all of the researchers. We have a lot of agency folks and decision makers, including those from the legislature to come together and understand what the contaminant story is with Cook Inlet, what is Cook Inlet water quality, and how can we improve that for the benefit of belugas, but also other species and communities that depend on that. And we've done a number of research projects to identify contaminant pollution and ways to reduce that, particularly in areas that are most important for belugas.
00:12:39 Nicole Schmitt We also spend a lot of time on that prey availability, which means getting them more food. And actually, just a couple of years ago, we successfully petitioned the regulatory body in the state to reduce the commercial fishing allocation for eulachon, which are hooligan or really, they're kind of like sardines. They're really, really oily fish. There's a commercial fishery for that fish species at the mouth of the river where all the Cook Inlet beluga whales rear and nurse their calves in the spring. It's kind of like the really fatty feeding spot in spring.
00:13:17 Nicole Schmitt And we were able to reduce the commercial harvest of the fish. Those belugas eat and need 200 tons. And then we also co-founded a monitoring program because, especially in light of recent funding cuts, but also just limited availability of data on belugas. So it's now developed as a NOAA program where we train hundreds of volunteers across Cook Inlet. They'll monitor Cook Inlet for Cook Inlet beluga whales at the mouths of major rivers in the spring and the fall so that we can have accurate behavior and data counts for population counts for belugas. And so all of those data have been really essential in informing development projects in areas where cooking belugas are.
00:14:02 Nicole Schmitt So we basically are trying to make sure that the agencies and the public have as much information as possible about beluga whales and that then we're using that data to make informed decisions to support their recovery, both through a reduction in contaminants and in getting them more food.
00:14:19 Pam Ferris-Olson Recently there was a different group of desperately critical beluga whales that made it in the news. These belugas had been held in captivity at a marine land in Niagara Falls, Ontario. When the park closed, it stranded 30 belugas in captivity and action was undertaken to rescue them. Do you know how those belugas ended up in captivity?
00:14:47 Nicole Schmitt Oh gosh, anytime we see footage of that type of situation where animals have been left or are in unsafe or harmful situations, it's really heartbreaking. Our work is we try and do everything that we can to keep wildlife wild. And so we don't engage much on the aquarium side of things. From what I gathered about that, those belugas came, I think, as a mix of direct wild capture from the Atlantic and then some captive breeding. But I think fortunately for my heart, I wasn't close to that issue but we certainly have seen that around the world at different places.
00:15:36 Pam Ferris-Olson So why should people care about those belugas or any other belugas for that matter?
00:15:43 Nicole Schmitt Just culturally, it's very important for us to value biodiversity and value these species for the sake that they exist and to put very intense resources into ensuring that they continue to exist. I think for the beluga case specifically, Cook Inlet belugas are very culturally important. There are Alaska Native tribes all around Cook Inlet and Tyonek tribe is the beluga clan. o there's a spiritual connection there. And as somewhat of a keystone species, how they're doing is a reflection of how the inlet is doing. And so to recover them and to reduce those threats that are impacting them will ultimately lead to a much healthier ecosystem that provides habitat and resources for all other species. So, I mean, I think just…we don't want species to go extinct. I think it reflects poorly on us. And so our actions and our resources that we drive to their recovery, I think, speaks volumes about what we value. And it's something that our organization and our members deeply value.
00:16:58 Pam Ferris-Olson Okay, so there's a special group of Alaska wildlife, if you will, that make up the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. And that special group is your staff, which is comprised totally of women. Why do you think that is the case?
00:17:19 Nicole Schmitt This was a fun question. We have had male staff members, so we haven't been exclusive. But I actually asked my staff this question because I was curious what they thought. And there is just data on nonprofit staffing, especially in kind of public interest type work that around 70 to 75% of nonprofit staff are women. So I think there's something about that, there's something there about maybe just feeling more of a sense of community obligation to give back professionally. A lot of our work is grounded in research, but ultimately to have any changes done, you have to have good relationships. And I think the approach of Alaska Wildlife Alliance is to really focus on relationships as a means to make improvement for wildlife.
00:18:22 Nicole Schmitt Often we step into rooms kind of as the representation or the voice for wildlife. And that is only as as impactful as the relationships that you have in that room. And I think that women tend to put more of an emphasis on that relational focus. And then, you know, we're also just seeing more and more women in STEM. And so that's been fun to, you know, even on these sort of male-dominated industries in the sciences, we're starting to see more and more women.
00:18:57 Pam Ferris-Olson So what are the challenges of conservation in an enormous state with vast areas of wilderness?
00:19:04 Nicole Schmitt Yeah, I think Alaska's size can both be a pro and a con. On the benefits is that we have mostly intact ecosystems. Our population is around 750,000 people, which is smaller than most mid-sized cities in the lower 48. That is nice. We're not dealing with the level of habitat fragmentation or industrial pressure that a lot of other places in the country and certainly the world are facing. That can be very helpful. But the size is also quite challenging. 80 percent of communities live off of the road system and so we often have to fly or boat to places where we do on the ground conservation work, which can be very expensive.
00:19:57 Nicole Schmitt And then there's, you know, we have a longstanding program in Western Alaska on the Bering Sea in partnership with tribal communities. And it's off the road system. There's certainly no hotel. So, you know, we'll sleep in the library or sleep on someone's floor. And some of those logistics can be challenging but ultimately, they're kind of wonderful because they just require coordination and collaboration and being embedded in communities where the work is happening. And so it makes it very, very sort of friendly. So I think that that's the size can be a challenge.
00:20:38 Nicole Schmitt And then the other aspect is that the rate of change that we're seeing in Alaska. Alaska and Arctic environments are seeing climate, the impacts of climate change at three to four times the rate of the lower 48. And so it's just massive. It's accelerating quite quickly and there's not a lot of case studies in how to adapt to that and how to help species adapt to that. We're kind of learning as we go. And so that can be quite challenging as well.
00:21:10 Pam Ferris-Olson Can you tell me what gives you hope about conservation in Alaska?
00:21:16 Nicole Schmitt Yeah, I have a lot of conversations with folks that seem to maybe be a little bit politically divided or a lot politically divided. And I think, not unique to all people,. But I think more unique to Alaska is that there's something of a ruggedness. Like you can really disagree in one room but then if your car goes off the ditch, the person that you disagreed with is going to help pull you out. And I think through these conservation conversations with people who are opposed to certain projects that we are, for example, a trappers’ association. We might disagree on things but the more that we are able to talk to them and build relationships, we've been able to make some real progress in having policies and decisions that benefit wildlife because we found things that we could agree on. And I have yet to find an organization or an interest group that we haven't been able to make some step of progress with. And so I think there's hope that there's a narrative that we're very divided, and I think that feels prevalent for all of us right now. But when you can just sit down and talk and de-escalate these issues, I think we have a lot more in common than we think. And there seems to be widespread concern for wildlife and habitat. And just seeing that breadth of a coalition come around some of those issues has given me a lot of hope.
00:22:43 Pam Ferris-Olson Good. So what is one of your priorities for the Alaska marine environment and how can we contribute to supporting this vision?
00:22:53 Nicole Schmitt Yes, I was reflecting on this, especially at the time in the world where we're at now. And I think the biggest priority for us in marine conservation is to ensure that the laws and norms that we have to protect marine environments remain in place. These are things like the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act. And so Step One is ensuring that they stay intact. The second step is to ensure that those regulations norms are being revisited to ensure that we're meeting this moment because we've learned a lot about contaminants like PFAS. We've learned a lot about the rate and impacts of climate change and we need to make sure that we are adapting our approach as we learn more about these things because if we don't, we'll be too late.
00:23:51 Nicole Schmitt So really defending the line that helps keep our oceans clean and keeps harvest at a sustainable rate. And the way that people can support that, there's a lot of organizations and communities that are doing really great work, and often some of this work is not very exciting. It’s a lot of digging through regulatory papers and being involved and getting involved in decisions that impact wildlife and environments. And so I would say you can support organizations in your community or in areas that you care about who are doing that work.
00:24:28 Nicole Schmitt You can get involved in local councils and boards that are making decisions, you know, anything from a municipal or your community council in certain areas. They make decisions on, for example, how stormwater and wastewater might be collected. That ultimately goes into the ocean and impacts wildlife. So there's kind of no volunteerism that's too small.
00:24:51 Nicole Schmitt And I think the other big thing, especially coming up in elections, is that you want to vote for people who also share those values and who see the environment as not kind of an externality or a clean environment would be a nice thing to have but something that's essential to have. And there are decision makers who are considering impacts to wildlife, air, water, habitat, and the decisions that they make. So those are the three things, I think just getting involved, supporting organizations if you're able to financially who are doing this work, and to make sure that you're voting for people in all levels of government that share those values.
00:25:31 Pam Ferris-Olson All right. Thank you, Nicole. I literally want to let you know I appreciate that you phoned in for this interview. Oh, yeah.
00:25:44 Pam Ferris-Olson I want listeners to know that I've been speaking with Nicole Schmitt. She is the executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. Nicole is the latest guest in the Wo(man) Mind the Water Artivist series podcast. The series can be viewed on womenmindthewater.com and YouTube. An audio-only version of this podcast and a transcript are available on womenmindthewater.com, on iTunes and Spotify.
00:26:11 Pam Ferris-Olson Wo(men) Mind the Water is grateful to Jayne Rice for her use of her song Women of Water. All rights for the Wo(men) Mind the Water name and logo belong to Pam Ferris-Olson. This is Pam Ferris-Olson.