The plights of the Gulf of Mexico's manatees and Rice's whales.
Few mammals saved under the Endangered Species Act are as iconic, beloved or bickered about than the Gulf of Mexico's manatees. Now the petitioners and lawyers are lining up yet again to save the starving sea cow. Decades of pride and millions of dollars are at stake riding on the species salvation. A paucity of seagrass, the animal's main food source, has led to manatees dying in droves, to the extent that for the past two winters wildlife officials had to toss them lettuce to survive in the wild. (Florida Today 11/20/23) Thought to be recovered, Florida manatees are once again in peril (pnj.com)
Rice's whales are unique to the Gulf of Mexico
No animal's Endangered Species Act story looks hopeful at the outset, and the saga of the Rice's whale, only now begun to unfold, features as bleak an opening chapter.
Estimates of the number of surviving Rice's whales hover between the mid-20s and 50. One large-scale disaster could potentially lead to its extinction.
"One event, like an oil spill, could wipe out the species," John Ososky, manager of the marine mammal collection division of the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History told the Pensacola News Journal.
Ososky played a critical role in bringing about the 2021 declaration of Rice's whale as a unique whale species.
The Rice's whale is the only whale that is unique to North America and the Gulf of Mexico. It tends to confine its movements to the deep waters of a depression in the continental shelf known as DeSoto Canyon - an area where oil drilling remains taboo, serves to shelter the remaining whale population from drilling platforms or heavy ship traffic occurring in the Central and Western Gulf.
It is still an area fraught with peril," (Eglin bombing range, seismic air guns for oil and gas exploration and big-game recreational fishing for the whale), Ososky said. (PNJ.com 11/19/23) Rice's whale now included in Endangered Species Act. Is it too late? (pnj.com)
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