Fewer than 400 Cook Inlet beluga whales are left in the wild. Now a company wants to survey and study the waters of Cook Inlet, Alaska, so it can build an underwater artificial intelligence (AI) data center squarely inside the habitat these whales depend on.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is reviewing the company’s preliminary permit application. If FERC says yes, the company can start the work needed to develop up to 1,650 acres of ocean, filled with hundreds of tidal turbines and underwater server hubs. That area is designated critical habitat for a whale population that ranks among the most endangered marine mammals anywhere.

Belugas live by sound. They use it to find food, keep track of each other, and get around in murky water. That makes noise underwater especially dangerous for them. Even before anything is built, the boat traffic and seafloor surveys planned for the early studies could disturb them. Construction would bring far more disruption, and plenty of other ocean wildlife in the inlet would be harmed too.

With so few belugas left, there is almost no room for added harm. Each whale lost makes recovery harder.

The demand for data centers is growing fast, but there are other places to put them. Critical habitat for endangered whales should not be on the list. FERC can stop this now, at the very first step, by denying the preliminary permit.

Sign the petition to urge the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to deny this permit and keep Cook Inlet safe for its last belugas, before the survey boats arrive.