AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the existing environment, including conditions and trends, that may be affected by the management alternatives. Descriptions focus on the physical features of Cook Inlet, Alaska, living marine resources, and habitat. The following description(s) of the physical environment of Cook Inlet provides a setting for subsequent discussions on the environmental impacts of each alternative. These descriptions are necessary for understanding how the alternatives being considered may affect the marine resources of Cook Inlet. Because this assessment focuses only on the development of a co- management agreement between NMFS and CIMMC, and the biological and cultural environment surrounding that activity, this section focuses only on beluga whales and the use of beluga whale for subsistence purposes. The reader may find a more detailed discussion of the region's natural and human environments in the following reference documents: the University of Alaska’s 1974 Alaska Regional Profiles: Southcentral Alaska (UAF 1974), and the Minerals Management Service's Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Cook Inlet Planning Area Oil and Gas Sale 149 (MMS 1996).
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