The Whale Reclassification Decades in the Making Rice’s Whale — Balaenoptera ricei
Formerly called the “Gulf of Mexico Bryde’s Whale,” Rice’s whale is named after biologist Dale Rice, who first documented them in the 1960s. Genetic testing confirmed in 2014 that the whales in the Gulf were genetically distinct from the Bryde’s whales in other oceans. The classification of Rice’s whale as a new species was completed with an autopsy of a whale that came ashore in Florida in 2019. There are fewer than 100 Rice’s whales left in the wild.
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