Reading. RARE WHALES (Pre-Int)

RARE WHALES

Seeing a group of whales is a treat for anyone, but just think how exciting it must have been for Wayne Fewings and his family, who saw a baby, or calf, white humpback whale. This whale is the rarest in the world and not many exist.

The rare sighting took place on Thursday, September 29th, when the family encountered a group of whales while in their boat near a harbour in North Queensland. They noticed some activity in the water around their boat. They stopped to have a look, and saw an amazing 12-feet long whale calf. Wayne estimated that it was probably only a few weeks old. He said that the best part was that the curious whale came close enough to the boat to allow them to touch it and take some photographs, before it was taken away by the grey adult humpback whales.

This kind of white whale is very rare. The reason it is white rather than grey is that some marine mammals are born without melanin – a substance in their skin. White whales are so rare that only one other white whale has been sighted amongst the 15,000 whales that live along Australia's east coast. That particular whale lives close to where the Fewings family saw the whale calf. Local people call the whale Migaloo. This whale was first seen in 1991 and is one of Australia's most famous humpback whales – there are two websites and a Facebook page about her!

Experts believe that while the white whale calf could be Migaloo's baby, it could also belong to a normal grey humpback whale that has the rare skin problem. If the experts can get samples from the calf and run some experiments, then they may be able to understand more about this rare mammal – and whether it is related to Migaloo. Locals hope the new whale will become as famous as Migaloo and as popular with tourists.