U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz didn’t get his way last year when he sought to give Eglin Air Force Base personnel the right to fire munitions into the Department of Defense’s vast Gulf of Mexico Test Range without considering the harm that might inflict on population of the Rice’s Whale, one of the world’s most endangered marine mammal species.

Florida’s First District congressman has again introduced legislation asking his colleagues to support Air Force exemptions to the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammals Protection Act. The exemptions would allow for testing and training activities “that include the use of live or inert impact weapons or aerial gunnery” that “may result in the incidental take of the Rice’s Whale.”

An incidental taking is the unintended harming or killing of a threatened or endangered species during the performance of an otherwise legal activity.

Rice’s Whales, also known as Gulf of Mexico Whales, are closely monitored because it is believed only about 50 remain in existence. The species, unique to the waters of America, was only identified as distinct in 2021 when researchers for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were able to confirm physical and genetic traits that set it apart from the Bryde’s Whale, its closest relative.

It resides almost exclusively in a deep depression along the continental shelf running about 60 miles off the coast between Pensacola and Fort Myers. The DeSoto Canyon, as the depression is called, offers refuge for the critically endangered whale from the noise generated by ship traffic and oil drilling operations.

Rice’s Whale Gulf of Mexico’s Rice’s whale is a newcomer to Endangered Species Act protections

The whale’s only chance for survival likely depends upon compliance with the provisions of the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammals Protection Act, said Christian Wagley an organizer for the conservation group Healthy Gulf.

“These laws work and the people of this nation support them, Congress doesn’t need to meddle with them,” he said.

Groups like Healthy Gulf question the proposed legislation because, as was the case last year, the Air Force did not request that Gaetz introduce it and it is unclear what benefits the Fort Walton Beach Republican believes can be derived from the exemption he seeks.

As it stands now the Air Force is free at any time to request that NOAA grant an incidental taking exemption in support of national security, Wagley said.

Last year, Gaetz spoke at a congressional hearing to request an Air Force general’s assistance in pushing for the Eglin exemption. Gaetz said that the whale’s presence in the Gulf of Mexico had brought over-water munitions testing at Eglin to a halt.

More: Conservationists say Santa Rosa Commission got it wrong with Rice’s Whale resolution

That statement wasn’t true. The Air Force had stopped weapons testing in the Gulf range because its mandate to do so had expired.

The Air Force took great pains to work with the National Marine Fisheries Service last year in developing its 2023-30 letter of authorization to resume weapons testing in the Gulf in a manner that would increase protections for the Rice’s Whale. A final authorization notice, written into the Federal Register, states as much.

“The USAF has agreed to procedural mitigation measures that would reduce the possibility and/or severity of impact expected to result from acute exposure to live explosives and inert munitions impacts to marine mammal habitat,” the Federal Register document states. “The U.S. Air Force will prohibit the use of live or inert munitions in Rice’s Whale habitat during the effective period for the proposed (letter of authorization).”

That Eglin would work as diligently as it did to help preserve Rice’s Whale comes as no surprise, said the National Resources Defense Council’s Michael Jasny.

“Eglin for decades has worked to serve as solid stewards of the environment,” Jasny said. “Real environmental leadership has been realized by Eglin.”

Gaetz defended his amendment by saying Eglin is not utilizing enough of its estimated 120,000-square-mile water range.

“Since I have been in Congress, there has been no harm to Rice’s whales from munitions and missile testing at the Eglin Gulf Test & Training Range. And Eglin Air Force Base does not believe reopening the areas currently restricted would endanger the Rice’s whales,” he said in an email. “Therefore, my amendment is an effort to get the range fully operational again, which is vital to our national defense.”

Should the Gaetz legislation be signed into law as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, it would force Eglin and the Air Force to release itself from the Marine Mammals Protection Act, Jasny said.

“This would be such a black mark,” he said.

In a draft paper discussing the possible impacts of the Gaetz amendment, officials from NRDC wrote extensively about the ground breaking work the U.S. Navy had done in the last 10 years in shifting its stance of opposition to environmental safe guards put in place to protect threatened and endangered species to one embracing the provisions.

“The Navy … routinely protects habitat of endangered Right Whales off the East Coast, of endangered Blue Whales off Southern California, of endangered and iconic orcas off Washington State and of the myriad populations of whales and dolphins unique to the Hawaiian islands,” the paper said.

The paper said that “recent efforts by anti-environment members of Congress” to exempt Eglin Air Force Base from environmental compliance for the Rice’s Whale could threaten what significant progress has been made.

“It will certainly be asked within the Navy why the Department shouldn’t receive similar dispensations for its own offshore ranges,” the paper said. “Achieving such objectives would undermine the Navy’s progress in conserving some of the country’s most beloved species.”

In the end, passage of the Gaetz amendment “would just be setting a terrible precedent,” Jasny said, that could ultimately undermine the integrity of the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammals Protection Act.

“Once you start putting holes in these statutes they can real quickly start looking like Swiss cheese,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Congressman Matt Gaetz seeks to remove Eglin protections for Rice’s Whale