The study is the latest piece in a puzzle scientists are trying to solve about why the endangered population of Cook Inlet belugas is not rebounding.
"Cook Inlet belugas"
Volunteers help monitor Cook Inlet’s endangered belugas
The first observation this year was March 10 — a mom and a calf on the river.
A beluga from the Beaufort Sea has traveled unusually far south, to Washington State
NOAA Fisheries says the whale appears to have swum thousands of miles south from Arctic waters.