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How do they know there are only 50 left? The gulf is a pretty place.

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Because it's by design, an invented endangered species.

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Rice's whale ( Balaenoptera ricei ), also known as the Gulf of Mexico whale, is a species of baleen whale endemic to the northern Gulf of Mexico. Initially identified as a subpopulation of the Bryde's whale, genetic and skeletal studies found it to be a distinct species by 2021. In outward appearance, it is virtually identical to the Bryde's whale.

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Want to regulate an area?

1) Find a small genetic difference in the population of some otherwise abundant species living there.

2) Declare a "new" species discovered.

3) Declare this species as critically endangered, based on on circular logic that found it to be a separate species in the first place.

4) Imply in articles that this is the "humans" fault, and not the scientists who picked an arbitrary rare trait only to turn around and complain that said arbitrary rare trait is rare.

5) Make rules to "save the whales".

This is pretty similar to the LA/MS frogs SCOTUS case from a few years ago. Some of those "species" that 'only survive in one pond' would only have 1-2 genes different from the different also "rare species" in the next pond 100yds away.

They had to do DNA testing to be able to tell the difference, with just a handful of base-pairs being flipped, and using that to claim "new species".