Legal Implications of Identification of the Rice's Whale in the Gulf of Mexico

In 2021, scientists announced the identification of a new baleen whale species in the journal Marine Mammal Science. The Rice's whale, originally believed to be a subspecies of the Bryde's whale residing in the Gulf of Mexico, is extremely rare - less than 50 individuals are thought to exist. In 2019, NOAA Fisheries listed the Gulf of Mexico Bryde's whale as an endangered subspecies under the Endangered Species Act. In August 2021, based on the new scientific findings, NOAA Fisheries published a rule to revise the common and scientific name of the Gulf of Mexico Bryde's whale to the Rice's whale. This paper provides an overview of the listing process for the Rice's whale, summarizes the citizen petitions and lawsuits filed to date to ensure federal protections for the Rice's whale are fully implemented and enforced, and discusses the potential implications of these developments on ocean industries in the Gulf of Mexico.