F-22 Plus-Up Environmental Assessment - Joint Base Elmendorf ...

Other diet items include cod, pollock, and sole. In Knik Arm, belugas transit between locations
such as stream mouths (NMFS 2010c) where behaviors including milling, feeding, and
socializing by belugas have been identified (Stewart 2010). In the project area these areas
include Six Mile Creek, North Eagle Bay, Eagle River, and near Point McKenzie, with transit of
belugas primarily along the east side of the Lower Knik Arm (Stewart 2010). Most beluga
activity in Knik Arm is noted during August, September, and October, coinciding with the
Coho salmon run (NMFS 2010b). Within Knik Arm, beluga abundance is highly variable.
Fourteen years of aerial surveys conducted during the first weeks of June by NMFS show
beluga abundance in Knik Arm ranging from 224 (in 1997) to 0 whales (in 1994 and 2004)
(NMFS 2008a). Beluga abundance in the Knik Arm is highest during the months of August
through November, which account for 90 percent of observations of whales in the Knik Arm
made by land and boat-based observations between July 2004 and July 2005 (NMFS 2010b).
Surveys conducted by boat during August through October 2004 reported variable abundance
counts in Knik Arm with 5-130 whales in August, 0-70 whales in September, and 0-105 whales
in October (Funk et al. 2005). (Single observation totals of up to 71 whales during daily visits
were recorded during summer 2009 in Eagle Bay at the mouth of Eagle River on JBER-
Richardson (C. McKee, personal communication, USARG-DPW). Average daily visits to Eagle
Bay were 9 whales (McKee and Garner 2010). These animals are expected to pass by JBER
shorelines. Public observations suggest occasional feeding activity near mouth of Six Mile
Creek, which is supported by studies conducted by Funk et al. (2005) and Stewart (2010.) The
waters of Knik Arm are extremely turbid and subject to wide tidal fluctuations, with a mean
diurnal range of 30 feet in Anchorage resulting in currents ranging from about 3 knots to 12
knots locally (Blackwell and Greene 2002). Belugas ascend to upper Knik Arm on the flooding
tide and often retreat to lower portions of the Arm during low tides. In the narrows of the lower
reaches of Knik Arm they tend to follow the tide within 1 km of either shoreline. Above the
narrows, they may travel up the east side of the Knik Arm following the channel along Eagle
Bay on incoming tides and belugas are observed to hug the western shoreline when moving out
of the Knik Arm (NMFS 2010b); however, from vantage points on the east side of the Arm
above the narrows, many of the same individuals observed swimming up on the east side are
also observed to swim down on the same side (Garner, personal communication 2011).
1.5.2 Steller Sea Lion, Western DPS
Biology: See “National Marine Fisheries Service. 2008. Recovery Plan for the Steller Sea Lion
(Eumetopias jubatus). Revision. National Marine Fisheries Service, Silver Spring, MD. 325 pages.”
Status: Endangered (1997) (62 FR 24345, 62 FR 30772).
Critical Habitat: Designated August 27, 1993 (58 FR 45269) – none in Upper Cook Inlet.
Local Records: Steller sea lions have been observed in Knik Arm on rare occasions – most
recently a single male was observed during summer of 2009 near the mouth of Eagle River,
adjacent to Eagle River Flats (C. McKee, personal communication, JBER USARG-DPW). NMFS
(2010b) indicates that there is little likelihood that the species would enter the Knik Arm in the
vicinity of JBER in the future.
Wildlife Analysis
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F-22 Plus-Up Environmental Assessment