Beluga whales that became stranded in mud during a low tide recently have managed to free themselves. So far there are no signs of stranded or dead whales, but quite a few of the whales swimming freely.

The whales were spotted by a pilot wallowing in a large mud hole, two hours later they were spotted again, still stuck. The stranding occurred during an abnormally low tide and it's thought the animals were stuck for several hours or more. The whales were seen to move around in the mud before all the water was gone and were able to create a small pool for themselves which would have helped keep them cool. They were possibly chasing silver salmon in the area.

Mass strandings are one of the biggest threats to the Cook Inlet belugas which are considered a genetically distinct population as they don't mix with other beluga groups in Alaska. There are approx 375 of them, down from over 1,300 in the 1980s. Overharvesting by Alaska Natives is believed to have contributed to the downward slide but numbers continued to decline even after hunting was sharply curtailed in 1999. In the last decade, there have been 15 reported strandings of beluga whales in Cook Inlet.