Critically Endangered
Rice's whale
Balaenoptera ricei
Rice's whale, also known as the Gulf of Mexico whale, is a baleen whale endemic to the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Appearance
The dorsal fin is shaped like a large hook that can range between ~24–38 centimeters (9.4–15.0 in) tall in adults and located around two-thirds of the length back from the snout. Its body is streamlined and sleek, with a uniformly dark charcoal gray dorsal and pale to pinkish underside. Rice's whales employ a diel vertical diving pattern, in that the whale spends most of the day feeding at or near the seafloor at depths at around 150–250 meters (490–820 ft).
The largest measured individual was a lactating female 12.65 meters (41.5 ft) in length. USNM 594665 is the largest known male of the species and is 11.26 meters (36.9 ft) long. Adults may be as small as 7 meters (23 ft) in length, and many verified and possible Rice's whales do not exceed 10 meters (33 ft).
Range and habitat
The Rice's whale is mainly restricted to the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Specifically, scientists identified its core habitat range as a small stretch along the continental slope between depths of 150–410 meters (490–1,350 ft) within and near the De Soto Canyon off the coasts of western Florida, Alabama, and eastern Louisiana. It is a non-migratory species and usually stays within this area year-round, making it the only known baleen whale resident to the Gulf of Mexico.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
This behavior is a foraging strategy that targets diel vertically migrating prey, and is similarly employed by some rorquals like the blue, humpback, and some Brydes' whales. In contrast, many Bryde's whale populations often feed at the surface, that Rice's whales have never been observed to do.
Foraging occurred at the bottom of each dive via lunge feeding, usually around one lunge per daytime dive. This is a lower frequency that is observed in other rorquals that forage at depth, where multiple lunges are usually done per dive, but is consistent lunging rates observed in fish-eating rorquals.
In crisis
The best population estimate is 51, with as few as 26 mature individuals, and the population is continuing to decline. A 2026 study found that the discovery and recognition of the Rice's whale and its population size resulted in minimal public attention through news coverage from 2021 to 2024 and remains relatively obscure, despite its risk of extinction and vulnerability to anthropogenic threats. On March 31, 2026, the committee of federal officials known as the Endangered Species Committee or "God Squad" voted to exempt the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico from the requirements of the Endangered Species Act, that poses a major threat to the continued existence of the Rice's whale.
Population estimates are below 100 individuals and 50 mature individuals, with numbers continuing to decline. Estimations of mature individuals are based on a 2007 demographic model of Bryde's whales by Taylor and colleagues, that estimates that 51% of the total population is mature..
Rice's whale is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Rice's whale, Wikidata item Q105014096. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
