Everything You Wanted to Know About Migaloo, the Real White Whale | Surprising Science.

Smithsonian reporting on the fact that there really are while whales. Moby Dick might have really been based on a true story about someone seeing a while whale.

I thought it was interesting how many of them have been seen around the world. They must not be all THAT rare after all. I’ve never seen one but I haven’t seen all that many whales of any color in all my time at sea.

The white whales aren’t albinos either, which would have been my first thought. They think these whales have something called leucism where pigments are lost in patches of cells.

I think its pretty but its probably harder on it to get by as a whale. It really stands out. Spotted a long way off by predators and all that. But maybe the females like it better?

If I ever make it to Australias’ Great Barrier Reef, I hope I can run into Migaloo, he seems to be OK around people. Jenny Dean got some great shots of him breaching.     🙂