Rare white killer whale discovered in Alaska

BEIJING, March 8 (xinhuanet) -- U.S. scientists have found a rare white killer whale about two miles (three kilometers) off Kanaga Volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Islands, media reported Saturday.

"I had heard about this whale, but we had never been able to find it," said Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist with the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle who photographed the rarity. "It was quite neat to find it."

The whale was spotted last month while scientists aboard the Oscar Dyson¢wa National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) research ship¢wwere conducting an acoustic survey of Pollock, a whitefish, near Steller sea lion haul-out sites.

It appeared to be a healthy, adult male about 25 to 30 feet (7 to 9 meters) long and weighing as much as 10,000 pounds (4,500 kg).

While the whale's saddle area was white, other parts of its body had a subtle yellowish or brownish color, suggesting it was not a true albino, said John Durban, a research biologist at NOAA's Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

(Agencies)