Rare creature leaves photographer ‘speechless’ as it swims near Australian reef. See it
Brooke Pyke has been fascinated by the ocean for years.
The photographer bought her first underwater camera in 2014, according to her website. She then taught herself underwater photography, and she began her career as a professional photographer in Western Australia in 2021.
Now, she works as a photographer for a tour operator on the Ningaloo Reef — which Pyke described as having a “healthy and diverse population of oceangoing wildlife such as manta rays, whale sharks, migrating humpbacks, dugongs and many other species.”
Despite her proximity to the reef’s thriving ecosystem, there’s one creature that Pyke felt certain she would never get to photograph.
“Never did I think I would get the chance to photograph a white humpback whale. Or any kind of rare white whale,” Pyke wrote in a July 11 Facebook post. “But here we are, another jaw droppingly beautiful day on the Ningaloo Reef.”
Pyke was taking photos on the reef when a rare all-white humpback calf swam by alongside its mom, she shared online. The creature’s dorsal fin was still folded from birth, meaning it is likely less than 2-weeks-old, according to the photographer.
“I can die happy now,” Pyke wrote in a comment on Facebook.
Photos of the whale show it’s folded fin and bumpy white skin peeking out from the water as it cruises along.
“Pretty speechless to have been lucky enough to set my lens on such a unique creature,” Pyke said on Facebook. “Wishing it well on its journey into whalehood!”
Social media users shared their excitement about Pyke’s sighting.
“Once in a life time experience,” one person commented.
“Definitely one of the best photos I have seen of Ningaloo,” another Facebook user wrote.
All-white whale sightings
Pyke’s sighting comes following two other possible white whale sightings in Australia.
In June, a tourist flying over the Great Barrier Reef caught an all-white whale on camera. The sighting was confirmed by the White Whale Research Center in a June 16 post on Twitter.
Weeks later, a photographer captured what appeared to be a baby all-white whale near Guerilla Bay.
Unlike Pyke’s discovery on the western coast of Australia, the earlier sightings happened on Australia’s east coast.
A rare creature in Australia
White whales are a rarity, and there are only a handful in the world, Vanessa Pirotta, a whale expert at Macquarie University, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
On the eastern coast of Australia, there is only one known white whale, Migaloo.
Migaloo was last spotted in 2020, and experts could not confirm if the June 16 sighting was him.
“It does not provide us with the amount of information we would require to identify Migaloo,” Pirotta told 9 News. “It could be him or possibly another white-ish whale as part of this east Australian humpback whale population.”
Similarly, experts have not been able to confirm if the Guerilla Bay sighting was really a white humpback.
Olaf Meynecke, a marine scientist from Griffith University, speculated that the whale was just a few days old, which is why it appeared white, he told The Guardian.
Oceania Project founder Wally Franklin said it’s worth investigating the whale, but the sighting itself is not conclusive proof of another all-white humpback, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“It is very difficult to declare it as an albino whale, but I’d be interested to see more information about it,” Franklin told the news outlet.
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