The world's only known all-white male killer whale has been spotted in the Pacific Ocean off Russia, scientists announced Monday.
The orca, dubbed "Iceberg" by the scientists, was spotted swimming with a pod of 12 others. Iceberg has a 6.5-foot-high dorsal fin and is at least 16 years old, according to a blog post by Erich Hoyt, co-director of the Far East Russia Orca Project.
Check out a photo gallery of albino creatures
The pod was spotted by scientists from universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the waters around the Commander Islands off the Kamchatka Peninsula. The area is part of a marine reserve.
Hoyt wrote that two other white orcas have been seen in area, but that Iceberg is the first fully grown male.
“In many ways, Iceberg is a symbol of all that is pure, wild and extraordinarily exciting about what is out there in the ocean waiting to be discovered,” Hoyt said in a statement.
Hoyt wrote that researchers will return to the waters where Iceberg was spotted this summer in hopes of finding the creature again and determining whether he is an albino or if there is some other reason for his white color.
The researchers hope the presence of Iceberg will help efforts to expand marine reserves along the Russian coast, they said in the statement.
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Killer whales freak me out. I can't even watch Free Willy
How come?
News Flash!! Sea World has just offered a reward for the capture and exploitation of Iceberg! Dive! Dive! Dive!
Unfortunately, some disgusting crazy will now try and kill it saying they killed the only white whale and posting a picture of themselves with the dead whale. Maybe these scientists, unfortunate as it seems, should really keep quiet about these things.
I thought it was funny. [/Angel in ANGEL]
I hope it isn't a reflection of enviromental issues. I was told on a pink dolphine tour in HK that it was a cause of the polution in the waters this would be a very sad.
LOL
Very Good
i bet the seals are like ?!?!?! what??? then iceberg is like NOM NOM NOM
I actually agree with that statement
Poor whale...man will kill him in very little time, now that we know where to find him.
Those are females, buddy.
Looks fake to me. If you look right at the water line it is just as black as the rest. They get an A for imagination.
This is cool and all, but the picture is only of a fin. Where's the whole thing?!
Um, you only see the whole animal in captivity, or when highly skilled divers go out, Russians don't have the skills or equipment
That's probably the best picture they could get. You can't really pose them like your dog or cat.
They found Moby Dick at last.
Yeah, we found it and it is beautiful and unique. So lets research and study it and disturb its natural life. I see a dead white orca in the news in the future.
Hopefully no racism there atleast!!
This is such a psuedo new story. It's obviously a recessive gene that occassionally manifest as an anomaly. The true story is why do some people get so excited about these occurences in nature. Although they know what it is scientifically, a genetic mutation and anomaly, they try to give this occurence some type of esoteric meaning or heightened significance. I suppose the story is that when this usually occurs, the animal either because of it's deficient genetics or because of it's inability to blend into it's environment, doesn't make it to adulthood. Albinism happens all the time in nature. No big deal... right???
Are you able to marvel at nature?l or do you simply over-rationalize every thing with "who cares about __________ its simply a genetic mutation that occurred 3 billion years ago that science and evolution has confirmed through various studies...blah blah blah.." No matter what caused the whale to be all white it is still a sight to see. When you go outside you should just close your eyes since you are clearly disgusted by the beauty of nature and would rather view things in a petris dish.
Some things in nature are truly a marvelous, something to behold. They fact that this whale is white simply is not among them, not at least in my opinion. Perhaps you should consider why it impresses you and just as revealing, why CNN thinks that it should impress everyone else as well, "... so pure..." LMAO!!! Are they serious. In a lot of traditional eastern cultures prior to European colonial expansion, the color white signified death or the absense of life as in winter. In fact some tribes went as far to place over their entire body an grayish/white ash to more the death of someone. I am certain the white whale will not have the same life expectancy as the others so to some extent perhaps it's color should signify death as well?
Kinda odd that if you look closely you can see a black back on it. It seems to me that just the fin is white.