Teresa at Kenai beluga monitoring site. Photo by Allison Gardell, Kenai Peninsula College
We are so excited to share that our Kenai Peninsula Coordinator, Teresa Becher, was just awarded a 2023 'Partners in the Spotlight Award' from NOAA fisheries!
These national awards recognize partners who have expanded and enhanced recovery of the country's most imperiled marine species.
Read this excerpt from the award announcement:
Teresa became intrigued by Cook Inlet beluga whales and, through the NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Beluga Monitoring Program (AKBMP), Alaska Wildlife Alliance (AWA), and University of Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula College (KPC), began monitoring them in the Kenai Peninsula area. In 2019, she became the Kenai and Kasilof Beluga Monitoring Coordinator for AWA and KPC.
As of the beginning of 2023, Teresa has logged 378 hours of monitoring with AKBMP. As a result of her efforts and contributions by other volunteers and community members, the Kenai monitoring site consistently has the longest number of days monitored in a row during both the spring and fall monitoring seasons. This total does not include a substantial amount of monitoring that she conducts outside of that program; she is often seen in Kenai and Kasilof collecting opportunistic sighting data and providing support for newer beluga monitors.
Teresa is well known in the Kenai Peninsula community and has trained many of the AKBMP volunteers who monitor in the Kenai area. She also dedicates tremendous time and energy to engaging with the local community to educate on the endangered beluga population, promote AKBMP, and recruit new volunteers.
In her role with AWA, Teresa runs the organization’s beluga text alert system, which sends texts to the public when belugas are sighted in the Kenai River. This system both bolsters public enthusiasm for Cook Inlet belugas and alerts fishers and other recreators on the river of the presence of the imperiled whales so that they can keep an eye out and avoid the whales.
Teresa has also supported NOAA Fisheries’ Cook Inlet beluga eDNA research since its inception, working with KPC professors to collect samples at the Kenai River through every month of the year, and training students on sample collection. This eDNA work is invaluable in providing information about the seasonal presence of both belugas and their prey in the Kenai area. In addition, she is a key contact for AKBMP partner organizations, graduate students, and other researchers engaged in Cook Inlet beluga recovery efforts on the Kenai Peninsula.
A true team player, Teresa credits all of her mentors and collaborators for the success of her work. However, it is Teresa’s passion and dedication to Cook Inlet belugas that inspire recovery partners, students, and the public, and her contributions continue to have a lasting impact on Cook Inlet beluga conservation across the Kenai Peninsula region.
Help us congratulate Teresa on this award, and thank her for all the time and effort she's contributed to endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale recovery!
To read more about Teresa's contributions and accomplishments, as well as the rest of NOAA's 2023 awardees, please visit NOAA’s 2023 Partners in the Spotlight award page. We look forward to celebrating Teresa with her award at this year's Belugas Count! afternoon celebration in Kenai. Join us!
