An Alaskan whale-watching charter spotted a rare white killer whale swimming with a pod near the islands of Kuiu and Kupreanof off the Alaskan panhandle on Aug. 7.
Owner of Alaska Sea Adventures Dennis Rogers was out with a group of eight sight seers aboard the Northern Song charter near the Keku Strait west of Petersburg.
The boat’s first mate Stephanie Hayes, a graduate student in marine biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, was able to snap some incredible photos of the orca.
“I saw kind of a glow under the water and I’m thinking, wow that’s an awfully white killer whale, that’s doing something funny,” she said.
Jared Towers with Fisheries and Oceans Canada believes it is the white orca’s first trip to Alaskan waters.
Based on some unique markings near the specimen’s dorsal fin, the group were able to identify the animal, which had previously been cataloged by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and given the name “T46-B1B.” However, the researchers conferred the more inspired nickname “Tl’uk” (pronounced tee-uk), the Coast Salish word for “moon,” to describe his luminous gray appearance.
Tl’uk was determined to be a 2-year-old Bigg’s killer whale. His gray-white appearance isn’t due to albinism, as one might think, however—albino orcas have pure-white skin and pink eyes. Rather, he is what is known as a “leucistic,” which describes a wide range of pigmentation deficiencies in a variety of different animals and causes blotchy or palish skin, fur, or feathers.
