Alaska Beluga Monitoring Program

04/30/2026

April 30 @ 9:15 AM. 3 belugas sighted from our monitoring site at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center by AKBMP observers! This is our first confirmed spring season beluga sighting in Turnagain Arm during an AKBMP session! Our Turnagain Arm sites (MM95.3 Highway Pulloff, Twentymile River, and The Point at AWCC) will now be open to new volunteers for training sessions. Thank you to our dedicated volunteers for consistently keeping eyes on the water as we navigated a late start to the season!

04/17/2026

Woohoo thank you to our AKBMP volunteers for being out there to report beluga sightings!

04/16/2026

Yes, there is still a lot of ice at our upper Turnagain Arm sites (Twentymile River and The Point at Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center) BUT, there is also a channel of open water. We have decided to open these sites to current, fully trained volunteers to start getting eyes on the water to look for belugas! All of our AKBMP sites are FINALLY open for the Spring 2026 season. Head to our website (akbmp.org) for specific details on the status of each monitoring site. Thank you to our current volunteers, new volunteers, and partners for their patience as we have worked to get this spring monitoring season going!

04/15/2026

April 15, 2026 @ 1:06 PM. At least 20 belugas currently in the Kenai River! Thank you to AKBMP monitors, Betty and Lori, for monitoring in the chilly the weather and sighting them!! Thank you AKBMP partner rep, Teresa B., for the great video!

Our Kenai River site is co-hosted by NOAA Fisheries Alaska with Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Kenai Peninsula College.

04/14/2026

April 14, 2026 @ 9:26 AM. 6 whales (1 adult, 4 sub adults, 1 calf) sighted at the Ship Creek small boat launch during an AKBMP low tide monitoring session! They were milling at the mouth of Ship Creek and have just headed out of the Knik Arm towards Point Woronzof. Thank you Ragen D. for the report and quick video.!

This site is co-hosted with NOAA Fisheries Alaska by Defenders of Wildlife

04/07/2026

Belugas in the Kenai River! Woohoo!!!

04/05/2026

Sunday, April 5, 2026 @ 2:11 pm. At least 2 belugas (mom and calf) sighted from our Ship Creek monitoring site. It was a quick sighting, and they have already left. This is our first AKBMP upper Cook Inlet sighting of the season!!! Thank you Kate S. for the sighting report!!!!

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04/03/2026

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04/01/2026

Yesterday (March 31, 2026), 6 belugas came into the Kenai River. Thank you to our Kenai partner rep, Teresa B., for taking a quick video! Although the strong glare makes age class difficult to determine in the video, our trained observers confirmed that there were 2 adults (white), 3 sub-adults (gray), and 1 calf (dark gray). We are excited to have more beluga sightings as our spring monitoring season continues!

Our Kenai River monitoring site is co-hosted with NOAA Fisheries Alaska with Alaska Wildlife Alliance and Kenai Peninsula College

03/31/2026

The ice conditions at our Ship Creek monitoring site are substantially different between low and high tide. The ice flushes in with the incoming tide and flushes out with the outgoing tide, creating a lot of open water around low tide. We have opened our Ship Creek site to current, fully trained volunteers so we can start getting eyes on the water during low tide sessions. We will open this site to new volunteers for training once we've had a beluga sighting. We are ready for the belugas to start returning to Upper Cook Inlet!

03/30/2026

AT LAST! A beluga sighting has been reported in the Kenai River! That means we are opening our middle inlet monitoring sites (Kenai River and Kasilof River). We are opening these sites to current volunteers only and will open the sites to new volunteers when we have had another confirmed sighting. We are still waiting on our upper Cook Inlet sites to open. It has been a long wait to get this season started, and WE ARE READY!!!!! Stay tuned for more updates :)