Rare white sperm whale discovered

The sperm whale, most likely with albinism, swam near the surface of the water not far from an oil tanker.

Sailors on the Dutch tanker Coral EnergICE caught a white sperm whale on November 29 off the coast of Jamaica. Captain Leo van Toly captured the moment the fish swim near the surface of the water. He sent the video to Annemarie van den Berg, director of the SOS Dolfijn whale conservation organization in the Netherlands. After confirming with experts that it was a sperm whale, the SOS Dolfijn organization shared the video on the social network Facebook.

Sperm whales are very reclusive and difficult to study.

The white color of sperm whales can be the result of albinism or leukoplakia. Both syndromes affect the ability of whales to produce the pigment melanin, which is usually gray in color. "We don't know how rare white sperm whales are," said Shane Gero, a sperm whale expert at Dalhousie University in Canada and founder of the Dominica sperm whale project. "But they still show up from time to time."

Because the ocean is so vast, researchers do not know for sure how many white sperm whales exist. Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are very reclusive and difficult to study because of their ability to dive deep for long periods of time. "Whales are very easy to hide even when they are as long as a school bus. So even when there are many white sperm whales, we don't see them very often," Gero said.

The most recent sighting of a white sperm whale was in 2015 off the Italian island of Sardinia. However, they have also been seen in Dominica (Caribbean Sea) and the Azores (Atlantic Ocean) in recent years. It is possible that the fish that appeared in Jamaica was the same fish that appeared in Dominica.

Researchers have also recorded white whales of many other species. An albino humpback whale named Migaloo has been swimming regularly in Australian waters since 1991, according to the Pacific Whaling Association.

Albinism is an inherited syndrome that prevents animals from making melanin, the pigment that gives skin and coat color, leaving individuals with the disease completely colorless. Leukopenia affects the production of melanin in melanocytes, causing partial or complete discolouration. Thus, whales with leukoplakia may be completely white or have white patches.

Despite the color difference between albinism and leukoplakia, there's no way to tell the two apart without genetic analysis, according to Gero. Some researchers have suggested that eye color can help distinguish them because most albino whales have red eyes. "The whale in Jamaica was very white and I guess it was an albino whale. But that's just my speculation," Gero said.

Whaling is no longer a major threat to sperm whales, but humans still pose many threats to whales such as collisions with ships, noise pollution, oil spills, plastic pollution and net. Currently, sperm whales are on the vulnerable or extinct list, but researchers do not know their exact numbers due to lack of data.