Dan "Get your hand off my ass" Sullivan cut necessary city programs to save money to hire a lawyer in legal battle against whales.

(I would like it to be noted that I really thought before using this picture. But when I googled Mayor Sullivan, guess which picture popped up? What can I say? It is the iconic Mayor Dan Sullivan picture.)

Mayor Dan Sullivan has hired a Seattle attorney to help the city negotiate the way through a pending federal designation of critical habitat for Cook Inlet's beluga whales.

Federal scientists say Cook Inlet's belugas are a genetically distinct species that doesn't intermingle with other beluga populations in Alaska. The Inlet's whales were estimated to number about 1,300 in the early 1980s, but the population plummeted to around 350 in the late 1990s.

Scientists blamed the drop on subsistence hunts, but Native hunters voluntarily curtailed their harvests in 1999 and the population hasn't rebounded as biologists had hoped. The fisheries service listed the whales as endangered in 2008, and a few weeks ago proposed designating more than 3,000 square miles of Cook Inlet as critical habitat for the whales. That area would comprise all of upper Cook Inlet, the coastal areas of western Cook Inlet and most of Kachemak Bay.

I have spent many a wonderful evening in Anchorage down by Point Woronzof watching the Belugas frolic in the Inlet. It is a very peaceful experience.

I especially remember taking a two year old girl, whose family my wife was a nanny for, and watching her face light up as she watched the white shapes popping to the surface before slipping back under the murky waves. "Uga's! Uga's!" She exclaimed and giggled every time she spotted one.

How can anybody who has watched these amazing creatures NOT want to protect their fragile habitat?

Sullivan announced Stelle's hiring during a noon luncheon with Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Dave Carey and Talis Colberg, mayor of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. All three mayors said the critical habitat designation could have big negative effects on government projects and activities in and near the Inlet, as well as fisheries and oil and gas development. They said they want to present a united front to oppose it and limit its effects.

Gee who knew the Three Stooges could be so evil?

Sullivan and Carey, especially, said they want the state to pay for what Sullivan estimated would be "several millions of dollars" of new science research on the whales. That work couldn't be done in time to help much with the debate over what areas should be designated critical habitat, but would be useful in future lawsuits, Sullivan acknowledged.

So let me see if I have this straight. The science, done by the Federal scientists, is not the kind of science that these guys like. So they want to pay millions of dollars to hire their own "scientists" to conduct the kind of "science" that one gets, when one is willing to pay millions of dollars, in order to continue treating Cook Inlet like a giant toilet bowl? (Yes in Anchorage our shit literally gets dumped right into the Inlet.)

Supporters of the designation say it wouldn't cripple development in Cook Inlet, but would require it to be done more responsibly. Science studies and monitoring already have shown the Inlet's belugas need the endangered species listing and its protection, they say.

The mayor's office said Stelle's firm, K&L Gates, has an Anchorage office and is already retained under a $50,000 contract with the city's legal department. The cost of paying for Stelle's time under that contract likely will be shared by city agencies most likely to be affected by the designation, including the Port of Anchorage, the water and wastewater utility, solid waste services and project management and engineering, Sullivan's aides said.

Gee what a competent mayor we have. Apparently our city is so broke that he felt he had to cut $175,000 from our libraries and arts programs, but not so broke that he cannot justify providing a $50,000 retainer for lawyer to fight for the right to continue dumping toxic substances and raw sewage into the habitat of these beautiful creatures.



"You better lawyer up, Moby! Mayor Dan "We don't need no stinking libraries" Sullivan is taking your ass to court!"

When is the next election?