The global beluga whale population is estimated in the hundreds of thousands, but that number masks a wide range of outcomes for individual groups. Some stocks number in the tens of thousands, while others have dwindled to a few hundred and face serious risk of disappearing. The species as a whole is classified as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, though certain subpopulations are critically endangered.
Global Numbers and Why They’re Misleading
NOAA Fisheries estimates that belugas worldwide “may number in the hundreds of thousands.” That sounds reassuring until you learn that belugas don’t behave as one big population. They live in roughly two dozen distinct stocks scattered across the Arctic and sub-Arctic, each tied to specific rivers, estuaries, and migration corridors. These groups rarely intermix, so a thriving population in one region does nothing to help a collapsing one somewhere else.
The largest concentrations live in the waters off Russia, Canada’s western Hudson Bay, and the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. These stocks are generally considered healthy. The populations in real trouble are the smaller, more isolated ones, particularly in Cook Inlet, Alaska, and the St. Lawrence Estuary in Quebec.
Cook Inlet: The Most Endangered Stock
The Cook Inlet beluga population in south-central Alaska is federally listed as endangered. As of the most recent aerial surveys in 2022, scientists estimated the population at 331 individuals, with a range of 290 to 386. That’s a slight improvement over the 2018 estimate of 279, and trend data suggest the population may have increased by about 0.2 percent per year over the past decade.
That growth rate is barely perceptible. Even if it continues, recovery will take generations. Annual mortality from reported strandings averages about 2.2 percent of the total population, and the causes behind most deaths remain unknown. Adults of reproductive age make up the largest share of documented deaths, followed by calves. New aerial surveys were conducted in June 2025, and results are still being analyzed.
St. Lawrence Estuary: Stalled Recovery
The St. Lawrence Estuary population in eastern Canada was estimated at 1,850 individuals in 2022, with a confidence interval of 1,500 to 2,200. The population appears to have stabilized between 2018 and 2022, but stabilization isn’t the same as recovery. The underlying problem is that calves and pregnant females have been dying at elevated rates for more than a decade.
Since 2008, researchers have documented a sharp increase in deaths of newborns and adult females during the calving season. The proportion of newborns in the population dropped to just 6 percent, and immature belugas fell to 33 percent of the total. Canada’s recovery plan now aims to reduce calf and pregnancy-related female mortality by 25 percent over the next 28 years, roughly one beluga generation.
Why Belugas Recover Slowly
Belugas are not built for rapid population rebounds. Pregnancy lasts roughly 13 to 14.5 months, and females typically go about three years between successive pregnancies because they nurse their calves for an extended period that overlaps with the next pregnancy. That means even under ideal conditions, a female produces one calf every three years or so. When calf survival drops or adult females die during pregnancy, the impact compounds quickly and takes decades to reverse.
Subsistence Hunting and Harvest Pressures
Indigenous communities across the Canadian Arctic and Alaska have hunted belugas for thousands of years, and subsistence harvesting remains an important cultural and nutritional practice. In most regions, harvest levels are managed through cooperative agreements. For the Belcher Islands and Eastern Hudson Bay stock, Nunavik communities have operated under a five-year management plan since 2021. An average of 140 belugas from this stock have been harvested annually since then, with 183 taken in 2024.
The management goal is to maintain at least a 50 percent probability that the stock stays at or above 3,400 animals. Recent analysis has raised concerns that no current harvest level may be sufficient to meet that target over the next five to ten years. A smaller nearby stock in James Bay sees an average annual harvest of about 31 animals, though no formal management objective has been set for that group yet.
Climate Change and New Predators
Shrinking Arctic sea ice is reshaping the risks belugas face. Belugas have historically used ice cover as a shield against killer whales, which avoid heavy ice. As summer ice retreats earlier and returns later, killer whales are spending more time in Arctic waters. Native hunters in Alaska’s Kotzebue Sound have reported increasing killer whale sightings, including direct predation on belugas during years with unusually low ice.
Genetic tracking studies have linked unusual beluga migration patterns to anomalous ice years. In at least one documented case, belugas shifted their behavior in ways consistent with avoiding killer whales rather than following prey. These behavioral changes can push belugas away from traditional feeding areas, with ripple effects on body condition, reproduction, and the Indigenous communities that depend on predictable migration routes. As ice continues to decline, researchers expect killer whale predation pressure on belugas to increase across the Arctic.
Where Things Stand
The species is not on the brink of extinction globally. Hundreds of thousands of belugas still swim in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. But conservation works at the stock level, and several of those stocks are in precarious shape. Cook Inlet’s 331 belugas could vanish within a few decades if mortality doesn’t drop. The St. Lawrence population’s failure to produce surviving calves at normal rates has stalled its recovery for over a decade. Even the larger, healthier stocks face mounting pressure from a warming Arctic that is eroding the ice habitat belugas have relied on for millennia.