One of the world's rarest whales finds itself in greater jeopardy. That’s because the Trump administration lifted a layer of protection for the endangered Rice's whale.
It is found only in the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump renamed to the Gulf of America. The new rules remove a recommendation for oil tankers and large ships to slow down to avoid hitting them. Oil and gas companies had said the rules hurt their businesses.
Steve Mashuda is an attorney with the environmental advocacy group Earthjustice. They were a plaintiff in a 2023 settlement that temporarily set speed limits of 10 knots for oil and gas vessels in the western Gulf.
“We're at a point with Rice's whales where we need to be doing everything possible within our power to save this species,” he said. “With less than 100 left and recent estimates as low as 51 individuals, we need to be pulling out all the stops.”
Mashuda says ship strikes are one of the major threats to the species. Their prime habitat is near oil and gas drilling sites, and that means a lot of tanker and shipping traffic. Those vessels are responsible for most of the collisions.
"Slowing vessels down just as they're transiting this narrow band of Rice's Whale habitat in the Gulf of Mexico is a thing that can be done immediately. It can be done by everybody and it can be very effective in avoiding collisions," he said.
Mashuda said one out of every five whales were killed or seriously harmed from the 2010 BP oil spill. And this ruling may hasten the extinction of the species.
