Discovered rare white killer whales

Special-colored killer whales appear with the flock while hunting seals and sea lions off Washington state.

The one-year-old white killer whale.(Photo: CNN).

The white killer whale named Tl'uk , which means "Moon" in the coastal Salish language, is a fairly popular animal in coastal areas north of Washington State. It appeared several times in the Salish waters before returning earlier this week, according to naturalist Erin Gless, who leads the whale watching tour of Island Adventures.

White killer whales like Tl'uk are extremely rare. At first, the researchers thought that this was a sign of the declining male whale or the result of inbreeding. But after nearly a year, it's getting bigger and still healthy. Tl'uk is a Bigg killer whale, hunting seals and sea lions on the west coast of the United States. They live in small colonies with looser social ties than other killer whales.

The Salish Sea is a complex network of coastal waters spread through Cascadia, a habitat that includes southwestern British Columbia (Canada) and northwest Washington (USA). According to the Georgia Strait Alliance, about 400 Bigg killer whales live in the Pacific Northwest.

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