**Court Orders Federal Agency to Better Protect Rice’s Whales from Oil and Gas Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico**
In a significant move, a U.S. District Court in Maryland has ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) must revise its biological opinion on oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico to ensure better protection for endangered species, including the critically rare Rice’s whale. This decision could have far-reaching implications for future offshore drilling operations in the region.
On August 19, 2024, the court sided with environmental groups, Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Turtle Island Restoration Network, who had challenged the legality of the NMFS’s biological opinion. The court found that the current opinion underestimates the risks and harms of oil spills to protected species and fails to adequately address the jeopardy analysis for the Rice’s whale and the Gulf sturgeon.
The key issues identified by the court include:
1. **Underestimating Oil Spill Risks**: The NMFS’s biological opinion was criticized for its inaccurate assumption about the population size of the Rice’s whale post-Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The court noted that the actual population was significantly diminished, with estimates ranging from 33 to 44 individuals.
2. **Incomplete Mitigation Measures**: The opinion only proposed mitigating two of the five stressors likely to jeopardize the Rice’s whale, and it lacked a clear explanation of how these measures would protect the species.
3. **Irrational Approach to Species Take**: The NMFS was also found to use an irrational method to determine the number of listed species that could be taken by vessel strikes.
### Impact on Offshore Drilling
The ruling could imperil future federal offshore oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico, particularly ahead of the scheduled lease sale in 2025. However, NMFS has begun working on a revised