The National Marine Fisheries Service has started a review that could remove the endangered status from Rice's whales as the federal government has increased efforts to promote oil drilling of U.S. shores.
A Federal Register notice published Monday states a status review has been initiated to determine if Rice's whales are accurately listed or part of a broader species, which could result in them being delisted or downlisted to a threatened species.
The action follows a March 31 federal order that exempted all oil and gas activities from following rules regarding the protection of endangered species in Gulf waters.
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Kristen Monsell, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the notice "yet another ruthless attack on a species already on the brink of extinction."
"In a more reasonable administration this might be a routine status review, but Trump officials have shown they won't hesitate to employ any and all measures to destroy imperiled animals and boost oil industry profits," Monsell added in a statement. "We'll be watching this very closely, ready to take legal action."
In 2023, supporters of the whales argued that about 50 Rice's whales exist as they unsuccessfully pushed for a "vessel slowdown zone" in waters 100 meters to 400 meters deep from Pensacola to south of Tampa to protect Rice's whales from collisions with vessels and noise.
First listed as a subspecies of the Bryde's whale in 2019, Rice's whales were found to be a distinct species in 2021 by the Society for Marine Mammalogy due to the shape of its nasal bones.
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