New species of whales found in Gulf of Mexico

NEW ORLEANS — A tiny group of endangered whales that make the Gulf of Mexico their home turns out to be a previously unknown species.

The best count is that there are about 33 of the long, slender filter feeders — and definitely fewer than 100 of them. They’re listed as endangered in the U.S. and as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

They were classified as one of three of Bryde’s whale subspecies, but many scientists suspected they were something different.

Pamela Rosel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently published confirmation that it’s a previously unknown species.

Rosel’s article in Marine Mammal Science used DNA, bones and reports of sightings and strandings to show the whales are unique. Rosel, who works at NOAA’s Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Lafayette, named the new species Rice’s whale after the scientist who first recognized that the whales lived in the Gulf.