Drilling Threatens Rare Whales, Experts Warn

0:00It's March 31st. This is Durham News today, your AI-powered local news. The rice's whale is one of the rarest on the planet, with fewer than 100 left and maybe even under 50. These giants live their whole lives in just one spot, the Gulf of Mexico. Now the Trump administration wants to ramp up oil and gas drilling there, and scientists say that could drive them straight to extinction. Oil drilling brings big risks, like ship strikes, noise blasting their hunts, oil spills, and worsening climate change. With energy prices spiking from the Iran situation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing a national security angle to dodge endangered species. Protections The Interior Department meets Tuesday with the so-called God Squad Committee to consider it. Experts call these whales unlucky, stuck in a tight zone, with a picky diet of deep-sea fish they die for daily. They already lost many in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill.

1:00Folks like professors and aquarium chiefs warn it's piling on baked-in climate threats. This hits other species hard too, from threatened manatees and endangered sea turtles to sperm whales and corals. Rescue turtles head, right into gulf nesting grounds, and spills don't respect borders. The God Squad has only greenlit exemptions twice in decades, both with catches. Critics fear this opens the floodgates, letting emergencies justify harm anywhere from California to Alaska. As the committee weighs in, it's security versus survival in those waters.