Two of Alaska's politicians are requesting that more scientific research be carried out on the Cook Inlet's beluga whales to counter a federal conclusion that the whales are endangered and need special habitat protections.

Speaking recently at a joint news conference they asked the government to extend for 60 days a comment period on designating critical habitat for the whales. The Anchorage Assembly earlier unanimously passed a resolution asking for the extension on comments, which now is set in early February. They are also requesting that a public hearing be held in Anchorage.

Federal scientists say the Cook Inlet belugas are a genetically distinct species and don't intermingle with beluga populations in other parts of Alaska and the Arctic, with their numbers plummeting since the early 1980s. A study released in 2007 projected a one-in-four chance the Cook Inlet belugas could go extinct within 100 years if nothing is done, the politicians are calling it "false science.

Center for Biological Diversity however, one of several groups that petitioned the government to list the whales as endangered, said there's no question that Cook Inlet's whales "are genetically distinct and geographically isolated."