Andrea Steffen posted an inquiry to MARMAM yesterday
requesting information on a sighting she had of a white blue whale. I have been
able to confirm through looking at her photos that this is the same white blue
whale that has been seen more than 20 times going back to 1999 off California
and in Mexico and documented as part of our long-term photo-ID study of blue
whales in the eastern North Pacific. Most recent sightings were in September
2007 in the Santa Barbara Channel. A skin sample collected in 1999 and analyzed
by Southwest Fisheries Science Center revealed this individual was a male. A
summary on the sightings of this animal though 2001 were presented at the 2001
Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals (see abstract below). At
this point we do not know if this animal is a true albino or just an anomalously
pigmented animal but a skin sample from this animal remains archived in case
this can be tested molecularly or genetically.
Best,
John
Calambokidis
Research
Biologist
Cascadia
Research
218
1/2 W 4th Ave.
Olympia,
WA 98501
www.cascadiaresearch.org
calambokidis@cascadiaresearch.org
Tel.
(360)943-7325 ext 104
FAX
(360)943-7325
Chandler, T., J.
Calambokidis, and R. Sears. 2001. First report on sightings of a white blue
whale. in: Abstracts Fourteenth Biennial Conference on the
Biology of Marine Mammals, Vancouver, British Columbia. 28 November - 3
December 2001. Society for Marine Mammalogy, Lawrence, KS.
First Report on
Sightings of a White Blue Whale
Chandler, Todd1, Calambokidis, John1,
and Sears, Richard2
1Cascadia Research
First Author Address: 218˝ W 4th Ave.,
Olympia, WA, 98501, USA
2Mingan Island Cetacean Study, Toronto, St.
Lambert, Q.C., Canada
We report on an anomalously pigmented white blue whale that
was seen 15 times on 9 days over a 4-year period. Albinism or pseudo-albinism
is uncommon but does occur widely in land mammals as well as marine mammals.
Anomalously white individuals have been described for 20 species of cetaceans
including the closely related fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) and sei
whale (B. borealis), but this is the first record of a nearly all white
blue whale (B. musculus). Fourteen sightings made over 8 days by
Cascadia Research personnel and collaborators occurred in Southern California
in 1999 and 2000 and appear to be the same whale seen by Mingan Island Cetacean
Study in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico in 1997. This animal, while distinctive,
could not be identified using pigmentation patterns typically diagnostic in
blue whale photographic identification due to its white coloration.
Re-identification of this whale had to be based on scars and dorsal fin shape.
Position, depth, and behavioral data were recorded for all sightings and a
biopsy sample (still being analyzed) was obtained during one sighting in 1999.
Ten of the fifteen sightings were from 1999 and occurred within a ten-mile
radius over seven days in the Santa Barbara Channel, California. Four sightings
from three days were made over a 28-day period in the summer of 2000, also off
southern California. In most sightings the animal was alone although many other
blue whales were present in the vicinity. In several cases the animal briefly
traveled as the lead animal in a pair (a position generally taken by females).
Though albinism and pseudo-albinism has been widely described in the
literature, and often captures public interest, the scientific significance to
cetacean research may be limited.