White Orca adult whale spotted for first time in wild off Russian coast

Scientists have made what they believe to be the first sighting of an adult white orca, or killer whale.

The adult male, which they have nicknamed Iceberg, was spotted off the coast of Kamchatka in eastern Russia.

It appears to be healthy and leading a normal life in its pod.

White whales of various species are occasionally seen; but the only known white orcas have been young, including one with a rare genetic condition that died in a Canadian aquarium in 1972.

The sightings were made during a research cruise off Kamchatka by a group of Russian scientists and students, co-led by Erich Hoyt, the long-time orca scientist, conservationist and author who is now a senior research fellow with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).

"We've seen another two white orcas in Russia but they've been young, whereas this is the first time we've seen a mature adult," he reported.

"It has the full two-metre-high dorsal fin of a mature male, which means it's at least 16 years old - in fact the fin is somewhat ragged, so it might be a bit older."

Orcas mature around the age of 15, and males can live to 50 or 60 years old, though 30 is more commonplace.

"Iceberg seems to be fully socialised; we know that these fish-eating orcas stay with their mothers for life, and as far as we can see he's right behind his mother with presumably his brothers next to him," said Dr Hoyt.

The cause of his unusual pigmentation is not known. The captive white orca, Chima, suffered from Chediak-Higashi syndrome, a genetic condition that causes partial albinism as well as a number of medical complications.

It is possible that an attempt may be made to take a biopsy from Iceberg; but with researchers reluctant to do so unless there is a compelling conservation reason, they are hoping instead for closer observations including a detection of eye colour.

The project Dr Hoyt co-leads, the Far East Russia Orca Project, has pioneered visual and acoustic monitoring in the inhospitable Kamchatka seas, and has produced a number of papers on the communication of killer whales.

This may lead to improved understanding of the animals' complex social structure, which includes matrilineal family clans, pods consisting of several families, and much larger "super-pods".

A related project aims to study and conserve habitat for all whales and dolphins around the Russian coast.

In recent years a white humpback whale nick-named Migaloo has drawn intense interest in Australia, while the Arctic beluga is naturally white.

The most famous white whale, though, is the fictional sperm whale that drove Captain Ahab to his eventually fatal fury in Moby Dick.

ESA ENVISAT MERIS Image: Sea Ice of Okhotsk

This Envisat image captures sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk off the northeastern coast of Russia’s Sakhalin Island (top left) and the northern tip of Japan’s Hokkaido Island (bottom left).

Sea ice began forming in the northern area over the Sea of Okhotsk in November 2009. Since then, it extended down to about 30 km off the northern coast of Hokkaido and has likely reached its maximum.

Sakhalin is separated from the east coast of Russia by the narrow Strait of Tartary and from the northern tip of Japan by the Strait of La Pérouse, which appears to be ice-free.

Sitting astride an active seismic zone, Sakhalin is prone to earthquakes that can trigger mudslides. The formal penal colony is covered in ice during the winter months, and its surrounding cool, fertile waters support enormous fisheries. But that’s not all; an estimated 45 billion barrels of oil equivalent are believed to lie beneath the icy seas off its shores.

Hokkaido is the northernmost and second largest island of Japan’s four main islands. The three islands visible northeast of Hokkaido belong to the Kuril Island chain, which comprises 22 main islands and some 30 smaller islets.

Stretching for 1250 km northwards from Hokkaido to the southern tip of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula (not visible), the Kuril Islands form a boundary between the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean (bottom right).

This image was acquired by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument on 9 March 2010, working in Full Resolution mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m.