It sounds like quite a fish story.
But Houston native Thurman Gustin, who’s been fishing since around age 6, swears by what he saw last month: a pink dolphin in Louisiana, about a mile from the Gulf of Mexico.
Pink dolphins are not normally found in Lousiana, according to Mr. Gustin, 61. But that’s exactly what he says he saw, and he’s got the video to prove it.
He and his girlfriend were on a fishing trip to Hackney in July and were boating around Calcasieu Lake and through the shipping channels.
“We were going through the East Pass and we were just kind of avoiding all the wind, and so I was going along and I caught something out of the corner of my eye that was under the water,” Mr. Gustin told The Epoch Times.
“It was big and I just stopped the boat, because I said, ‘I can’t believe what I just saw; there is no way!’”
Then it disappeared, and they waited to see if it would reappear on the surface.
“And all of a sudden, this beautiful pink dolphin comes up,” Mr. Gustin said. “We were both in awe of what we were looking at.”
“We couldn’t get the other one on video, but at one point they were next to each other,” Mr. Gustin said.
It turns out, local legend holds there is indeed a pink dolphin inhabiting the waters of Louisiana, near the gulf. That dolphin’s name is Pinky.
Mr. Gustin is certain it’s the same dolphin he saw, as pink dolphins are exceptionally rare.
“It’s like seeing Bigfoot,” he said with a laugh.
Pink freshwater dolphins do inhabit the Amazon River in South America, but as far as Mr. Gustin knows, there are no pink dolphins that live in saltwater—save one rare exception.
“A lot of people were saying that it’s an albino,” the Texan told the newspaper.
Albinism is a rare skin condition that causes a lack of pigmentation (color) in the skin of an organism. This anomaly can occur in a wide variety of animal species—including humans and, yes, dolphins. Yet, it is quite uncommon.
Mr. Gustin posted the footage they had taken online, and he and his girlfriend drew considerable enjoyment watching how “crazy” the comments got as people speculated the cause of the dolphin’s pink coloration.
The couple also learned from locals who contacted them, who’ve fished here their whole lives, that they had never seen Pinky before.
He finds it serendipitous how he spotted Pinky while on a vacation from out of state.
As he and his girlfriend are both planning to retire soon, they’re considering Louisiana as a place to settle down.
“This dolphin was definitely a sign,” Mr. Gustin said.
