Natalie Rouse is a necropsy biologist, research assistant, lab coordinator and training coordinator with Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services (AVPS). In many cases she works on site but for this project she conducted logistics by distance and the on-site coordinators were Dr. Melanie Iverson and Paul Cziko with the Kasitsna Bay Lab.
Rouse provided these details with the findings from this particular animal: “...this is a dead, stranded beluga whale. By its length we know that it's between... It's considered a juvenile, sub-adult, so it can be anywhere from three to nine years old based on its length. It was a female. It was pretty heavily scavenged, but rather fresh when it was found.”
The beluga came to the research team’s attention through observations on the Seldovia Chatter Facebook page and a response was organized by the National Marine Fisheries Service and AVPS to collect samples. Samples are immediately headed for disease diagnostics and they go to many different places. “So, a lot of things will go to the University of Alaska, Museum of the North. They'll archive that for any future research for anybody at the semi public archive that can be checked out by any researcher. And then we keep a couple; we keep some of those samples in our freezer. We send some to Northwest Fisheries Science Center for toxicology research. We have a researcher in Texas that does reproductive research. We have a researcher at Tufts University thats looking at avian influenza surveillance. So there's, there's probably about 15 different labs that all the parts and pieces will end up going to just initially, and then potentially more, depending on what we find with the diagnostics,” Rouse said.
Belugas in Cook Inlet are a critically endangered subpopulation of animals. In the last few population surveys, their population has been stable, hovering around 300 and that's still a fairly low number, Rouse said.
“So any time a Beluga strands dead, especially, you know, a younger one that is sort of before its time, that's of concern to us, and we want to find out what's causing that, and why they're dying a little before their time,” Rouse said.
Rouse referred to several problems noted recently: various bacteria pathogens, namely Erysipelothrix and Tularemia (see references at the end of the report), but several other stressors as well. “It's generally thought that they kind of have stressors coming from a lot of different angles. So, noise pollution is certainly something that affects them, because they need to echolocate; fish runs and need to be strong and healthy for belugas to be able to build up their fat in the summertime. So, that's definitely something that we look at when we're considering Beluga health. So there's a lot of reasons why they're not doing well in this area, but there's not, not really one, one reason that we have pinpointed,” she said.
For more information on the bacteria pathogens, Rouse referred to two recent publications: “Emerging Infectious Diseases” is published by the Center for Disease Control and the June 2025 publication is available for public review. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms is an academic science journal and an article on Cook Inlet belugas was published there in July 2025.
Rouse noted that this is the second dead-stranded Cook Inlet beluga whale in the Homer area this year. The first one stranded in Anchor Point on January 18th and was necropsied by Rouse and the Kachemak Bay Campus Semester by the Bay students on January 19th.
The NOAA office in Juneau requests the public: “If you see a stranded, injured, entangled, or dead marine mammal, call the NOAA Fisheries Alaska Statewide 24-hour Stranding Hotline: (877) 925-7773.”
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
Rouse, N. et al. “Francisella tularensis Subspecies holarctica in Stranded Beluga Whales, Cook Inlet, Alaska. USA.” Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol. 31, No. 6. June 2025. www.cdc.gov/eid.
Rouse, N. et al. “Erysipelothrix in Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA: an emerging bacterial pathogen of the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale.” Diseases of Aquatic Organisms. Vol. 163: 1-16. July 2025.
