Migaloo, the all white male humpback whale was recently sighted headed back towards the coast of Cairn, Australia near the Great Barrier Reef.
The white whale is travelling in a migratory pack of around 14,000 other humpbacks. This year, there have been a huge amount of sightings of the sometimes elusive whale. In past years the whale was able to stealthily traverse the open waters to the northern parts of the Barrier Reef mostly unseen before heading back to the Antarctic. The number of sightings this year has created a surge in whale watching and dive boat bookings in the area giving the industry there a much needed boost.
For me, this is one of the coolest animals out there. Migaloo has become so famous that there is now a 1,600 flot exclusion zone around the whale preventing boats from harassing the giant mammal all day.
Migaloo Informational video
wait, so it was traveling in a pack of fourteen thousand other humpbacks!?! good lord thats alot of whales! what percent of those other hump backs could have also been all white? or is all white really that “rare” or indangered?
Humpbacks are one of 20 species of cetacean known to have albino individuals as opposed to just white so I’m pretty sure he’s a true albino. Albinos are pretty rare in the wild for a lot of reasons, one being they stick out like a sore thumb and another is that albinos can have impaired sight due to their condition making them easily predated. I haven’t been able to find any info on other albino whales in the group but I think if there were others they probably would have been mentioned. There are other well known albino whales and dolphins though.
http://marinelife.about.com/od/watchingandphotography/p/albinowhales.htm