Few weeks ago, a group of tourists that went to Japan had the rare opportunity to catch the sight of an amazing pair of albino orcas. The tourists were on a whale watching cruise that belongs to Gojiraiwa Kanko Whale Watching. The company itself posted several pictures and videos of this remarkable incident and they mentioned on Facebook that they were “excited” to see those albino orcas because nobody has seen them for nearly 2 years.
They were spotted close to Shiretoko at the northeastern edge of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s four main islands.
It also said, “I found a herd of orca including the white orca. In the middle of the day,” and “Our first observation of white orca… No way I can observe a white individual again.”
Also, Gojiraiwa Kanko Whale Watching posted a short video on their blog that shows the albino orca pair and regular orcas swimming together. It shows how excited the tourists were to experience the amazing sighting. The main reason for any animal to be white like this (to be an albino) is the lack of melanin production.
Not only Japan but Australia also has a quite famous albino whale called “Migaloo”. Migaloo is a humpback whale and not an orca like the ones found in Japan waters. Sadly, interested researches assume that the humpback is dead because he was last seen almost two years ago, and was not in good health back then.