Given that the beluga whale population in Alaska’s largest city Anchorage decreased by approximately 50 percent in the 1990s and that the mammals have not managed to rebound yet, the state’s federal government decided Friday to list the belugas as endangered species.

The protection measures that have been previously taken with regards to the beluga whales include having stopped Alaska Natives hunters from killing the small whales.

Nevertheless, federal scientists have reported that the population had not recovered, which prompted them to declare the belugas endangered.

The whales are now protected under the Endangered Species Act, after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined that the beluga whale population had gone down from 653 in 1994 to 278 in 2005.

The whales can be found swimming off the coast of Anchorage, in the Cook Inlet (a channel flowing from the city to the Gulf of Alaska) region.

Still, the government’s decision has come into much opposition from Sarah Palin’s administration, the state governor, who is also the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee in the 2008 U.S. elections, having expressed her disapproval of the listing, stating that she feared the measure would interfere with coastal and offshore oil and gas development, as well as with a project to expand the Port of Anchorage.

Palin has challenged the decision to list the beluga whales as endangered-as she has previously done in the same matter concerning polar bears-by saying the measure was premature and unnecessary and that it would cause much damage to the economy of the Cook Inlet area.