By Lexie Kauffman ‘22
In the 1990s, Dale Rice, a marine mammal scientist, hypothesized that the northeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico housed a small population of whales that had never been identified. However, at the time, the whales were assumed to be a subpopulation of Bryde’s whales, a different species of whales.
In 2008, Rice’s research was revisited when NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, gained a tissue sample that they were able to analyze. The analysis revealed that the unknown population living in the gulf were genetically different from other Bryde’s whales.
“But we didn’t have a skull,” Patricia Rosel, a geneticist at the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center told New Scientist.
According to Rosel, a skull is necessary when establishing a new species of whale. In 2019, Rosel’s need was fulfilled when a 38-foot whale carcass was spotted near Sandy Key, Florida in 2019.
“Through some really enormous efforts of the stranding network to respond to that dead whale…and save it and preserve it, we were finally able to look at the skull morphology and make comparisons to those other Bryde’s whales,” Rosel reported to NPR.
In order to clean the enormous skeleton, NOAA scientists buried it for multiple months at Fort De Soto Park in Florida. After it was buried for the required time, the bones were unearthed and shipped to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. There, Rosel and other scientists had the opportunity to study the specimen.
The skull revealed major differences from Bryde’s whales, including bones that surround the blowhole of the newly named Rice’s whale.
Researchers believe that Rice’s whales can weigh up to 60,000 pounds and be as long as 42 feet., smaller than Bryde’s whales which can surpass 50 feet in length. Researchers approximate that the new species can live to about 60 years.
A study that detailed the new discovery was published in Marine Mammal Science journal in January of 2021. The study explained that the new species was already added to the list of critically endangered species. Experts believe that fewer than 100 whales of the newly discovered species are left in the wild.
“Even something as large as a whale can be out there and be really different from all the whales, and we don’t even know it,” Rosel described to the Tampa Bay Times. “It really brings to light the urgent need of conserving and protecting these animals in the gulf and making sure we don’t lose another marine mammal species like we already have.”