A FEDERAL JUDGE ordered an immediate reduction in the number of cruise ships permitted to sail into Glacier Bay, a move that could affect up to 32 of the 42 vessels still scheduled to visit the highly popular Alaskan waterway this summer. U.S. District Court Judge James K. Singleton's ruling stems from a 1997 lawsuit brought by the National Parks Conservation Assn., which charged that the National Park Service illegally increased the number of ships allowed into Glacier Bay because it failed to undertake a complete environmental review before granting the increase.

DAYS AFTER a federal judge cut the number of cruise-ship visits into Glacier
Bay, Alaskan natives are questioning moves by two cruise lines to re-route some
itineraries into the Hubbard Glacier region. In a letter last week to John
Hansen, executive director of the North West CruiseShip Assn., Bert Adams Sr.,
tribal president of the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, said increasing the number of
cruise ships sailing into Disenchantment Bay, the site of Hubbard Glacier, could
hurt the resident seal population. "More ships going in means more pressure on
the environment," said Adams. He added that increasing the number of ships in
Disenchantment Bay will set a precedent for next May and June, when the seals
give birth and tend to their young on ice floes near the glacier.

The National Park Service is close to cracking the case of what smashed the skull of a pregnant humpback whale in Southeast last month, officials said Thursday.

The federal agency has followed up on tips from ship passengers who said they had information about a possible collision with a whale, said Chuck Young, chief ranger at Glacier Bay National Park, 50 miles northwest of Juneau.

A 45-foot humpback was discovered floating in water near the mouth of Glacier Bay on July 16. A necropsy revealed the whale, an endangered species, died of massive head injuries consistent with a strike from a large vessel.

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