By. Thilini
This snow-white killer whale was spotted off the southeast coast of Alaska.
The whale is called T’luk, which means moon in the language of the Coast Salish people. We couldn’t have thought of a better name that matches this white whale who looks like he came straight out of a Disney movie!
T’luk was not alone when he was spotted. He was swimming with two adults along the coast of Kuiu and Kupreanof Islands.
Dennis Rogers luckily spotted this amazing animal. The owner of Alaska Sea Adventures said that he was on a trip with eight guests when they saw the white whale.
It wasn’t hard to spot him, given his snow-white complexion. In fact, “It surely made spotting him easy,” Dennis said.
“When they go underwater, they usually disappear and they are typically very hard to follow.”
“But having a white one under the water, you could see him an easy ten feet below the surface, this big white shape moving along there.”
However, even though he looks all white, it turns out that he doesn’t belong to the famous classification of all other white animals. According to marine biologists, T’luk cannot be classified as an albino whale.
The whiteness of the whale is due to lack of pigmentation, not albinism, said Jared Towers, a killer whale researcher for Fisheries and Oceans.
We are so fortunate that the moment was captured on video.
I don’t believe it’s an albino whale,” Jared stated.
“It’s not quite pure white and it doesn’t have the pink eyes that would indicate albinism.”
While it is unlikely that T’luk is an albino whale, white killer whales are extremely rare. In fact, there are only two white killer whales who are known to be alive at present.