Rare white humpback whale, Migaloo, spotted
By Drew Cratchley
The Courier-Mail
RECORD numbers of humpback whales are on their annual migration up Australia's east coast, including the rare white whale Migaloo, scientists say.
Migaloo was spotted this week off Heron Island, on Queensland's central coast, by resort staff on a fishing trip.
Ben Friese, who was one of the lucky few on board, described the close encounter with the 14m whale as a "one-in-a-million chance".
"We were travelling along, we had just finished fishing, and we saw a pod of dolphins – so the skipper slowed down and turned the motor off, and Migaloo just popped up," Mr Friese said.
The white whale surfaced metres from the boat, and then swam underneath the vessel as the crew looked on in amazement.
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Migaloo was also spotted by researchers off Stradbroke Island late last week. A team of researchers is conducting a six-week survey at Point Lookout on the island, counting the number of humpback whales migrating north to the Great Barrier Reef. One of the group, Dr David Paton, scotched rumours of an albino Migaloo offspring.
While there have been several sightings of a white humpback calf in recent weeks, Dr Paton said the chances of Migaloo producing an albino calf were slim.
Albino animals typically suffer from low fertility, he said, and the chances of any offspring also being albino were even slimmer.
However, Migaloo might not even be albino.
"The probability is he may well be an albino, but he could also just be an animal with white pigmentation," Dr Paton said.
A large number of whales have been counted passing Stradbroke Island in the past week, prompting research head Dr Mike Noad to estimate as many as 10,000 humpbacks will migrate to the Whitsundays this winter.
"We can say that this population is doing extraordinarily well, it's got a very, very low death rate," Dr Noad said.
"We can infer that this population, although there is potential impact from things such as global warming, coastal development, all that sort of stuff, none of it seems to be worrying these guys at this stage.
"It seems that these whales are happy, and they're literally breeding like rabbits at the moment."
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