Park Service seeks charter vessel for beluga surveys departing Homer

Boat owners have until Aug. 5 to bid on a federal winter charter that could run as long as three years. The National Park Service issued the request for quotation Monday, seeking a vessel of at least 65 feet to carry up to 10 scientists on 15 to 18 survey days a year in November, January and March.

Trips begin and end in Homer. The vessel can be based elsewhere and inspected in several other ports. The captain must have at least three years of experience in Cook Inlet and the Alaska Peninsula area.

The work is a prey-landscape assessment of western lower Cook Inlet, a winter foraging area for endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales and sea ducks. The first cruise is planned for November 2026.

The award is set aside for small businesses. Local vessel owners and other small operators stand to gain charter revenue from federal science work of this kind.

Quotes and questions go to contracting officer Darcy Skinner at [email protected] by 3 p.m. Alaska Daylight Time on Aug. 5.

The Marine Mammal Commission puts the Cook Inlet beluga population at 331 animals.

Conservation advocates, including the Center for Biological Diversity, have argued that survey and monitoring work alone will not recover the population, and that stronger protections are needed alongside additional research cruises.