National Parks Traveler Podcast | Cook Inlet's Beluga Whales

A fast-track proposal to develop a gold mine near Alaska's Cook Inlet and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve is alarming scientists, environmental groups and local communities because of the devastating effects it is expected to have on the region's critically endangered beluga whales. Cook Inlet is home to a small and genetically distinct population of beluga whales that has struggled for decades from habitat loss, industrial activity, pollution, and underwater noise. Supporters of the mining project say it will bring jobs, economic growth and profit to Native Alaskans.   This week Traveler's Lynn Riddick talks with Cooper Freeman, Alaska Director of the Center for Biological Diversity.  His organization along with many others argue that the gold to be extracted isn't worth the cost of threatening a species already vulnerable to extinction and forever desecrating a magnificent landscape.