But experts say it is not an albino.
The unusually colored corpse was discovered July 16 by local resident Peter Coles as he was kayaking past a remote beach near Mallacoota, Victoria. The humpback was around 33 feet long and has been confirmed to be a juvenile female."It was pure white" and had a marble-like appearance, Coles told Sky News ."I thought it looked like a sculpture; it almost didn't look real."
Another possible explanation for the whale's ghostly hue is that some of the whale's skin had fallen off as the body decomposed. This can happen due to sun exposure and the lapping of the waves as dead whales float on the surface, which can expose lighter skin underneath, Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University in Australia, told ABC News . However,"it seems to be most likely a white whale," she added.
In April, another juvenile white humpback was spotted swimming with dolphins in New South Wales, and images suggested that this individual was also leucistic and not albino. However, there is no evidence that this whale is the same as the dead whale on the beach.
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