Rare White Killer Whale Spotted in Alaskan Waters from NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson
NOTE: High resolution photos of the white whale are available online. See link at bottom of news release.
Scientists aboard the NOAA research vessel Oscar Dyson in the North Pacific have sighted a creature of great rarity and even myth: a white whale.
The white killer whale was spotted with its pod about two miles off Kanaga Volcano, part of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, on February 23. At the time, Kodiak-based Oscar Dyson was on a research expedition for NOAA’s
The white whale is a fish-eating type of killer whale, as were all the killer whales photographed on the expedition. Fish-eating killer whales are the most frequently seen whales around the
Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist at NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory in
“Despite the typical stormy weather that makes research operations very difficult in the winter, the scientific team on Oscar Dyson has been pulling in a huge amount of planned research data,” said
Few white killer whales have ever been seen, according to Fearnbach, much less scientifically documented.
This whale is likely not a true albino because it still has signs of darker pigmented areas on its body. However, because of its prominent coloring, the white whale serves as an indicator for movements of killer whales in the North Pacific.
White killer whales have been sighted previously in the Aleutian Islands as well as in the
Besides fish and marine mammal researchers from the
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation’s coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
The high resolution images are at:
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/images/whiteorca1.jpg
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/images/whiteorca2.jpg
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/images/whiteorca3.jpg
Images must be cited as follows: "H. Fearnbach, NMML, NMFS permit 782-1719"
On the Web: www.omao.noaa.gov
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