While the agency touts development of technology to help ships avoid whale strikes, environmentalists are calling for vessel ...

Last month, BOEM nixed recommendations that ships slow down in areas where the whales are known to live and keep 500 meters away from any whale that might be a Rice’s whale.

According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Rice’s whale is one of 10 “species in the spotlight" and extinction is almost certain in the immediate future absent action to reduce threats.

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.

That’s Rice’s whale, the only resident baleen whale in the Gulf of Mexico—and one of the most endangered whales in the world. Scientists estimate that about 50 are left.

Also known as the Gulf of Mexico whale, Rice's whale was only identified as a unique species in 2021 when researchers for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were able to confirm ...