A rare white humpback is making his way up Queensland’s coast, with keen whale watchers keeping an eager eye out for the gentle giant of the ocean.
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Migaloo was spotted at North Stradbroke Island on Tuesday and is expected to continue on his annual migration to warmer waters in far north Queensland.
The whale, believed to be about 28 years old, is one of the few documented albino humpbacks in the world.
Migaloo watcher and founder of migaloo.com.au, Oskar Petersen, said the whale had recently developed yellow and red discolouration patches on his skin. It prompted him to forwarded images of the whale to Southern Cross University expert Dr Peter Harrison.
Dr Harrison said the red marks near his dorsal fins required closer examination and it was too early to speculate whether the red markings were a sign of disease or cancer.
However, he said the albino whale was more susceptible to UV damage than darker humpbacks.
“We know humpback whales bump into each other, play roughly or sometimes if they’re trying to jostle for position next to a female they will ram each other. It’s possible the barnacles from another whale have caused that area of redness,” he said.
Dr Harrison said the yellow patches were likely to be a harmless marine microalgae that will fall off when he Migaloo reaches warmer waters.
Boats and jetskis must keep a distance of 500 metres from Migaloo, and aircraft are not allowed any closer than 2000 feet.
The rules are different for other 20,000 whales that migrate along Queensland’s coast each year, with the single boats permitted to keep 100 metres from the animals and 300 metres for jetskis.
Gold Coast Adventures owner Bruce Nicholls said he spotted Migaloo in 2012, but this year the humpback arrived on the coast under the cover of darkness and wasn’t sighted.
“It’s an amazing sight,” Mr Nicholls said of witnessing the whale close-up.
“I started whale watching on the Gold Coast 11 years ago and he suddenly appeared a year or so after we started. His timing’s quite good in relation to launching the whale watching season, which begins on June 1.”
About four weeks into the season, Mr Nicholls said overall whale numbers appeared to be up about 15 per cent on last year.
He said Migaloo would pass the Gold Coast on his return leg, possibly in late September. However the whale tended to swim further out to sea on the trip back to Antarctica.
“The further out he goes the harder he is to find. But with more awareness we’ll have enough people looking for him,” Mr Nicholls said.
Migaloo’s progress is being tracked on a Twitter page run by Mr Petersen.
