President Donald Trump’s administration recently asked a rare committee known informally as the “God Squad” to scrap all protections for the critically endangered Rice’s whale, along with other marine life in the Gulf of Mexico. This move, made in service of the oil and gas industry, could lead to the first extinction of a whale species in North American waters in three centuries.
Rice’s whales have existed for an incredible three million years, long before modern humans even walked the Earth. According to The Guardian, these leviathan creatures can grow to the length of a bus and weigh as much as six elephants, spending their lives diving deep into the ocean to feast on fat-rich fish.
