Comment from Robinson, Jacqueline
Jacqueline RobinsonSupportAcademic
Summary: The authors, representing a group of researchers from various academic and government institutions, submitted a genomic analysis of the Rice’s whale to support the initiation of a status review. They argue that the species is genetically distinct, has a history of small population size, and requires management actions that promote sustained population growth to mitigate genomic risks.
A new genomic analysis of the evolutionary and demographic history of Rice’s whale and its genomic health is attached. The paper is preprinted here (doi.org/10.64898/2026.06.15.732430) and currently under review in a peer-reviewed journal. Our analyses reinforce the evolutionary distinctiveness of Rice’s whales, and suggest that Rice’s whale has persisted as a small and isolated population in the Gulf of Mexico for tens of thousands of years. Despite its long-term small effective population size, genomes show modest impacts of inbreeding, including few long runs of homozygosity. These findings highlight that while gene flow can increase genetic diversity, demographic recovery is essential to mitigate long-term genomic risks, underscoring the importance of management actions that promote sustained population growth.