The National Marine Fisheries Service has started a review that could remove the endangered status from Rice’s whales as the federal government has increased efforts to promote oil drilling of U.S. shores.

A Federal Register notice published Monday states a status review has been initiated to determine if Rice’s whales are accurately listed or part of a broader species, which could result in them being delisted or downlisted to a threatened species.

The action follows a March 31 federal order that exempted all oil and gas activities from following rules regarding the protection of endangered species in Gulf waters.

Kristen Monsell, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the notice “yet another ruthless attack on a species already on the brink of extinction.”

“In a more reasonable administration this might be a routine status review, but Trump officials have shown they won’t hesitate to employ any and all measures to destroy imperiled animals and boost oil industry profits,” Monsell added in a statement. “We’ll be watching this very closely, ready to take legal action.”

In 2023, supporters of the whales argued that about 50 Rice’s whales exist as they unsuccessfully pushed for a “vessel slowdown zone” in waters 100 meters to 400 meters deep from Pensacola to south of Tampa to protect Rice’s whales from collisions with vessels and noise.

First listed as a subspecies of the Bryde’s whale in 2019, Rice’s whales were found to be a distinct species in 2021 by the Society for Marine Mammalogy due to the shape of its nasal bones.

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