Cool Water Canaries
©2021 Pam Ferris-Olson
Cool Water Canaries is a memorial to the beluga whales of Cook Inlet, Alaska. The name Cool Water Canaries acknowledges that some call beluga whales sea canaries. This is a reference to the sounds the whales make underwater. The Cook Inlet population of beluga whales are critically endangered. Since 1979 their population has fallen from about 1,300 whales to around 330 today. The decline can be attributed to many sources such as energy exploration, fishing, noise pollution and habitat degradation.