B-mix with manganese speck clay body, slips, fired to cone 5

Rice’s whales sleep while floating just beneath the surface of the Gulf of America (formerly Gulf of Mexico). Fewer than 50 remain on Earth.

In a 15-minute meeting in 2026, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the Endangered Species Committee—known as the “God Squad”—granted a rare exemption removing environmental safeguards in the Gulf, citing national security concerns tied to the Iran war. As a result, Rice’s whales face increased risks from ship strikes, noise pollution, and oil spills within their only known home.

One by one, these quiet giants disappear into a silence that cannot be undone.

Goodbye to Rice’s memorializes one of the rarest marine mammals on Earth and reflects on the lasting consequences of human action on fragile ecosystems.

Sources: NOAA Fisheries; The Guardian (“Rice’s whales existed before humans: now Trump could make them extinct”); U.S. federal environmental and species protection records