Tourists film extremely rare albino Omura whale

The footage, taken on New Year’s Day during a boat trip off Corals Island, a small island a few kilometers off the southern tip of Phuket, shows the white marine mammal gliding through clear blue water. The animal then briefly surfaced and blew water from its blowhole (see video above), delighting tourists.

First ever sighting of an albino Omura whale?
According to marine biologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat of Kasetsart University’s Faculty of Fisheries, it is the first sighting of an albino whale in Thailand and possibly the first time an albino omura whale has ever been sighted.

The normal Omura whale is already rare, normally only found from Southeast Asia to southern Japan, the researcher said. Virtually nothing is known about this animal and it has only been filmed once. It is unclear how large the population is, how they are spreading and how many living animals are currently swimming in the seas.

The species was first described in 2003
The Omura whale is a species of striated whale, first described in November 2003, and belongs to the group of baleen whales. The type specimens of the species were caught in the late 1970s in the Sea of ​​Japan, the Solomon Sea and near the Cocos Islands.

The species is very similar to the fin whale, but with a length of about twelve meters it is considerably smaller than the latter. Furthermore, the marine mammals, about whose lifestyle virtually nothing is known, have only 200 baleen whales, which is significantly fewer than other baleen whales.