Trump Just Made Life More Dangerous for One of the Rarest Whales on Earth

Add endangered whales to the list of things the Trump administration doesn’t give a rat’s ass about.

On February 20, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, an agency belonging to the Department of the Interior, announced it was cancelling a notice that recommended ship operators in waters occupied by Rice’s whales to restrict their speed to 10 knots (11.5 miles per hour) or less. The notice, which affects a large swath of the Gulf of Mexico, was put in place in 2023 to specifically protect Rice’s whale, an endangered marine mammal.

While the exact number of Rice’s whales remaining in the Atlantic Ocean is unknown, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates there are likely fewer than 100 of them. That makes them one of the rarest whale species on the planet, one that’s protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Their numbers, already low, are estimated to have fallen by 22% as a result of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to NOAA.

The notice also asked ship operators to post trained visual observers to monitor the waters while in the protected area and to stay at least 1,640 feet (500 meters) from any observed Rice’s whales.

The notice was rescinded, according to a statement, to comply with an order from Interior Secretary Doug Burgum dubbed Unleashing American Energy, which is aimed at removing “impediments imposed on the development and use of our Nation’s abundant energy and natural resources by the Biden administration’s burdensome regulations.”

Environmental advocates have reacted with outrage. Michael Jasny, the director of marine mammal protection for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the recommendations were based on “common sense,” as he told the Tampa Bay Times. “The consequences of fatal error are too dire to contemplate,” he added. “And when you’re talking about one of the most endangered whales on the planet, it’s a reasonable thing to slow down in that school zone.”

Not shockingly, a spokesperson for the American Petroleum Institute disagreed, telling the Times that the recommendations had placed “significant burdens only on offshore oil and gas producers while failing to account for vessel traffic from other users operating in the region.”

Aside from being exceedingly rare, Rice’s whales are one of the newest known species of whales, in terms of formal recognition. Though first spotted in the Gulf of Mexico in the 1960s, the whales were at first believed to be part of a family known as Bryde’s whales. It was only in 2021 that genetic and morphological testing helped researchers determine they were a distinct species.

Rice’s whales are big mammals, measuring up to 41 feet (12.5 meters) and weighing in at up to 60,000 pounds (27,215 kilograms). They also face numerous threats, largely due to industrial activity. Their numbers have dwindled—at least in part—due to energy exploration and oil spills, getting caught in fishing gear, and human-created ocean debris and noise, according to NOAA.

During the day, they stay in deeper waters to feed, but at night, they often rise to within 50 feet (12 meters) of the surface. That makes them vulnerable to being struck by ships. That’s proven fatal at least once. In 2009, a whale later determined to belong to the species was found floating in the Port of Tampa. A necropsy determined the female’s death was caused by a collision with a boat.

The decision to rescind the notice comes just weeks after BOEM chief Elizabeth Klein was fired. Klein was named to the position by former president Joe Biden in 2023. The first weeks of the second Trump administration have been marked by a large-scale purge of civil servants, as the president moves to install loyalists into traditionally apolitical roles.

This, as they say, is why we can’t have nice things.