ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Over 3,000 square miles of Alaska marine area will be protected as critical habitat for a population of endangered beluga whales, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service announced on Friday.

The critical habitat being designated to help the belugas encompasses most of the northern third of Cook Inlet, a glacier-fed saltwater channel that runs from the Anchorage area to the Gulf of Alaska.

Also designated as critical habitat is Kachemak Bay, off the fishing town of Homer, and most of the inlet’s southwestern coastline, NOAA’s Fisheries Service announced.

Those areas are heavily used by the small white whales for congregating and summer feeding, NOAA Fisheries said.

Cook Inlet belugas are famous for swimming in large groups along the coastline of Anchorage and other urbanized areas.

Scientists estimate the inlet population numbered up to 1,300 in the 1980s before numbers crashed in the 1990s due to over-hunting by the area’s Alaska Natives, who are allowed under federal law to hunt marine mammals for traditional uses.

Even though hunting nearly ended over the past decade, NOAA analysis found the population continued to falter. Cook Inlet belugas were listed as endangered in 2008.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, April 7 (Reuters) – The chief executive of ConocoPhillips (COP.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the biggest oil producer in Alaska, warned on Thursday of diminished flow through the Trans Alaska Pipeline System and issued a plea to state leaders to cut production taxes as proposed in a bill pending in the legislature.

Oil flow through the aging line is now less than a third of the peak levels of 2 million barrels per day achieved in 1988 and falling at a rate of about 6 percent a year, meaning the remaining oil flow could soon diminish to a point where the system can no longer function, ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva said in a speech to the Resource Development Council for Alaska.

“TAPS faces new challenges with less oil flowing through the pipeline,” Mulva said. “When it starts getting down to 300,000 and 400,000 (barrels per day), there are serious technical issues of its ability to flow. We’re reaching that in the next several years.”

Mulva made a pitch for state lawmakers to reduce production taxes imposed under “Alaska’s Clear and Equitable System”, or ACES, the tax regime put into place in 2007 at the urging of then-Governor Sarah Palin.

Because of its ‘escalator’ mechanism, that increases rates as oil prices rise, Alaska has the highest oil-production taxes among all OECD nations, Mulva said.

Oil prices hit a 2-1/2-year high on Thursday as concerns about Middle East stability mounted. [ID:nL3E7F70KR]

“As a result, Alaska is not attracting as much investment as it should during periods of high oil prices. And that’s unfortunate. In fact, it’s downright sad,” Mulva added. “No other state’s production has declined more than Alaska’s.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The head of a nonprofit group against teen pregnancy on Wednesday defended the $332,500 his organization paid Bristol Palin over a two-year period to advocate for sexual abstinence.

“Bristol did a tremendous amount of work for us — many, many days and weeks,” said Neil Cole, founder of the nonprofit Candie’s Foundation.

Bristol Palin, the 20-year old daughter of former Alaska Governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, was paid $262,500 by Candie’s Foundation for her work in 2009, which was detailed in financial statements from the nonprofit organization.

In 2010, when her schedule was filled with other commitments including a high-profile run on ABC television show “Dancing with the Stars,” she was paid a lesser amount of $70,000, a spokeswoman said on behalf of the nonprofit.

Bristol Palin, then 18, was pregnant during the 2008 presidential campaign and her son was born in the month after the election. She and the boy’s father, Levi Johnston, had a much-publicized breakup.

The New York-based foundation is an offshoot of the fashion brand Candie’s, which is part of Iconix Brand Group Inc. Cole is chairman, CEO and president of Iconix.

Sarah Palin has generated controversy almost from the moment 2008 Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain named her as his running mate, and Cole said that applies to Bristol Palin also, which helps his organization.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Bristol Palin earned the $262,500 she was paid to advocate for abstinence and against teen pregnancy in 2009, the head of a nonprofit group that paid her said on Wednesday.

“Bristol did a tremendous amount of work for us — many, many days and weeks,” said Neil Cole, founder of the nonprofit Candie’s Foundation.

The daughter of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin became a single mother at age 18 and last year her profile rose when she was a fan favorite on ABC show “Dancing with the Stars.”

She was already famous, in part for being pregnant during Sarah Palin’s 2008 campaign as the Republican vice presidential candidate, and for her on-and-off relationship with the father of her child, Levi Johnston.

The New York-based foundation is an offshoot of the fashion brand Candie’s, which is part of Iconix Brand Group Inc. Cole is chairman, CEO and president of Iconix.

Sarah Palin has generated controversy almost from the moment 2008 Republican presidential contender Sen. John McCain named her as his running mate, and Cole said that applies to Bristol Palin also, which helps his organization.

“She is such a lightning rod,” Cole said. “Everyone is familiar with the Palins, and Bristol turned out to be, as someone said today, the gift that keeps on giving.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – The body of an Anchorage teacher who went missing in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in March has been found more than three weeks later, a family spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

Monty Dickson, 26, who was teaching in Japan as part of an exchange program, was apparently swept to sea by the tsunami that followed the massive earthquake that struck on March 11.

He had been in a three-story building that was covered by the wave, said Gloria Shriver, mother-in-law of Dickson’s sister.

Family members received an email several days ago notifying them that the body of a Caucasian male had been found, Shriver said. A telephone call late Monday night confirmed that the body was Dickson’s, she said.

Lack of information about Dickson’s fate added to the tragedy, Shriver said.

“It was torture, not having an answer, not knowing,” she said.

Family members in Anchorage plan to travel to Japan in the next few days to recover the body, Shriver said.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Bristol Palin was paid more than $260,500 advocating against teen pregnancy in 2009, tax documents released on Tuesday show.

Palin, the 20-year-old daughter of former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, earned $262,500 for her work advocating that teens abstain from sex, according to information posted on the Internet by GuideStar, which monitors the finances of nonprofit groups.

The Candie’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness of teen pregnancy and parenting issues, reported Bristol Palin’s earnings to the Internal Revenue Service.

“We know that Ms. Palin’s work has had a positive effect on creating awareness about teen pregnancy,” Ali Tyrangel, a spokeswoman for the foundation, said in a statement.

Tyrangel said an independent survey of 1,000 teens comparing Bristol Palin public-service announcements with those of another organization using non-famous teens found that the Palin spots were much more powerful and attention-getting.

“Bristol Palin has been a courageous and powerful partner to the Foundation as we attempt to discourage teen pregnancy,” she said.

Representatives for Candie’s and Bristol Palin could not immediately be reached for comment.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Bristol Palin was paid more than $260,500 advocating against teen pregnancy in 2009, tax documents released on Tuesday show.

Palin, the 20-year-old daughter of former Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, earned $262,500 for her work advocating that teens abstain from sex, according to information posted on the Internet by GuideStar, which monitors the finances of nonprofit groups.

The Candie’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness of teen pregnancy and parenting issues, reported Bristol Palin’s earnings to the Internal Revenue Service.

Representatives for Candie’s and Bristol Palin could not immediately be reached for comment.

Bristol Palin, then 18, was pregnant during the 2008 presidential campaign and her son was born in the month after the election. She and the boy’s father, Levi Johnston, had a much-publicized breakup.

Both young parents have embarked on separate celebrity careers.

Bristol Palin was a contestant on ABC’s television program “Dancing With the Stars” and went on the lecture circuit;

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Diabetic pilot Douglas Cairns plans a flying expedition to the North Pole to show what those with his illness can accomplish in the air.

In most of the world, diabetics are forbidden from flying private planes.

Cairns had to give up his British Royal Air Force career when he was diagnosed with diabetes in 1989. Now he is mounting an expedition for the record books.

In late April, when daylight and ice conditions are expected to be optimal, he plans to take off from Barrow, Alaska, and fly about 1,300 miles to the North Pole and back.

Cairns, who flies a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron, said the journey would make him the first pilot to land a light, twin-engine piston aircraft at the pole, a claim backed up by a spokesman for Guinness World Records.

The North Pole expedition is the latest in a series of aerial feats by Cairns and friends, including various speed records in the United States and a team effort that set a record for landing in each of the 50 states.

“It’s just been great to be able to take up these projects to spread the message of what you can do with diabetes, rather than what you can’t,” said Cairns, who was in Anchorage, Alaska, making preparations for the North Pole expedition.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Diabetic pilot Douglas Cairns plans a flying expedition to the North Pole to show what those with his illness can accomplish in the air.

In most of the world, diabetics are forbidden from flying private planes.

Cairns had to give up his British Royal Air Force career when he was diagnosed with diabetes in 1989. Now he is mounting an expedition for the record books.

In late April, when daylight and ice conditions are expected to be optimal, he plans to take off from Barrow, Alaska, and fly about 1,300 miles to the North Pole and back.

Cairns, who flies a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron, said the journey would make him the first pilot to land a light, twin-engine piston aircraft at the pole, a claim backed up by a spokesman for Guinness World Records.

The North Pole expedition is the latest in a series of aerial feats by Cairns and friends, including various speed records in the United States and a team effort that set a record for landing in each of the 50 states.

“It’s just been great to be able to take up these projects to spread the message of what you can do with diabetes, rather than what you can’t,” said Cairns, who was in Anchorage, Alaska, making preparations for the North Pole expedition.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – Thirty-two musk oxen were found dead in the ice along the Bering Strait, apparently killed when they drowned in water that surged ashore during a winter storm, the National Park Service said on Tuesday.

The dead animals were found frozen and entombed in shoreline ice at the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve in northwestern Alaska, the Park Service said. It is suspected that up to 23 more musk oxen may have died in the same event, their bodies buried deeper in the ice, the Park Service said.

The animals, some fitted with radio collars and being tracked as part of a five-year study, were last seen alive in mid-February, said John Quinley, spokesman for the Park Service in Alaska.

They apparently fell victim to a storm later in the month that sent waves up to eight feet higher than normal tide lines, Quinley said.

“The water came up. They didn’t leave. And eventually, they all drowned,” he said.

There are about 1,000 musk oxen on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula, a section of land where the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is located, Quinley said. The potential loss of 50 or so animals is not considered “a population-changing event,” he said.

Scientists plan to return to the site to retrieve teeth and bone samples and to try to determine the dead animals’ ages, he said.