Photo: Tym Morsky svet via Roaring Earth
In 2012, we posted about a sighting one of the first adult all white orca whales in the western North Pacific near the Kamchatka Peninsula. The observation was reported by Erich Hoyt, co-founder of the Far East Russia Orca Project. The rare whale was nicknamed Iceberg.
Subsequently, additional white orcas, no fewer than five, and perhaps as many as eight, have been sighted. White orcas are virtually unknown in other oceans. The unusual occurrence of so many white orcas in the region could suggest evidence of inbreeding. Or perhaps not.
New Scientist quotes Erich Hoyt. “What we are seeing is strange. It’s a very high rate of occurrence. … They are not what we would think of as the most inbred orca population,” says Hoyt. “Some populations in the eastern North Pacific contain just a few dozen individuals.”
The best known albino whale is probably the white humback nicknamed Migaloo which whale watchers in Australia have been tracking since 1991. Migaloo was recently sighted off Moreton on the Queensland coast.
The most startling lesson is that the orcas do not discriminate by colour or other prejudice, we, as humans, have a lot to learn.