Shades of Moby Dick!
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have photographed a white killer whale off the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. Not quite Captain Ahab’s giant, it is only about eight meters long and 4500 kg, typical size for an adult of that species. Nor is it a true albino, apparently, as parts of its body has a light yellowish-brown tinge.
I suppose some Japanese whaling boat will slaughter this poor beast (for research purposes only, of course…) before it reaches its potential old-age of 70 or 80 years. Killer whales are normally black and white, so the white is really not so odd — it is that yellowish part, which should be black, that is the anomaly. Moby Dick was probably not a killer whale (i.e. Orca species), though he was a killer of a whale with an appetite for sailor hors d’oeuvres.