A possible white albino humpback whale has been spotted by a drone off the coast of NSW. Source: Fernanda Cabral Jeronimo, Wikimedia Commons
A drone photographer has filmed what could be a rare albino humpback whale off the far south coast of New South Wales.
If the whale is an albino humpback, it would be only the second ever seen on Australia’s east coast.
Dylan Golden, who spotted the whale, had been photographing whales for nearly two hours on the 28th of June when he saw a large splash off the coast of Burrewarra Point.
Mr Golden couldn’t believe what he saw when he directed his drone over the whale and the young calf appeared to be albino.
“I was shocked. I didn’t know how to react, or really believe it was one until I looked back on the footage and saw how white it was,” Mr Golden said.
“I was in awe.”
He then followed the mother and calf until they dived out of sight.
Dr Wally Franklin, founder of the Oceania Project, said it was “absolutely intriguing” and worthy of more investigation, however, it was not conclusive.
“It is very difficult to declare it as an albino whale, but I’d be interested to see more information about it,” Dr Franklin said.
“It’s obviously a very young calf — only 3 or 4 metres long.”
Dr Franklin has been researching whales for over 30 years and said that it was rare to capture an image of such a small, young calf.
The small size of the whale calf is what makes it so hard to tell whether it is albino or not, and humpback whale calves are born with a very thin down layer which covers their skin and can shine gold or white during their first weeks of life.
Dr Franklin said that albino whales are extremely rare, and that “hopefully someone might spot this whale again.”
