Mysterious white whale makes appearance off Byron Bay

Mysterious white whale makes appearance off Byron Bay

Back in July, a breath-taking white whale made a spectacular appearance off the coast of Byron Bay and Craig Parry was there to capture the scene in all its glory. 

Australian Geographic caught up with Craig to discus the mysterious creature’s identity. Keep reading to find out more…

 migaloo craig parry

YESTERDAY MORNING, Australian nature photographer Craig Parry captured these incredible rare images of a white humpback whale off the coast of Byron Bay in northern New South Wales.

There is confusion as to whether the whale spotted is the famous white whale ‘Migaloo’ – first photographed passing Byron Bay back in 1991 – with some experts suggesting it may in fact be a different, younger individual which they’re calling ‘Son of Migaloo’. This white whale was apparently around 10m long – 2-3m shorter than Migaloo – and has less skin damage than the older, more famous white whale. “It’s quite identifiable that it’s more pure in its whiteness,” Trevor Long, Sea World’s Director of Marine Sciences, told the ABC. “This smaller whale was first seen in about 2004 and was last seen off the Gold Coast in about 2012,” he added.

Miga-who? Identifying the white whale

However another whale expert, from Griffith University, is arguing the white whale is indeed the famous 30-year-old Migaloo. “I am 100 per cent sure it’s Migaloo,” Dr Jan-Olaf Meynecke told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The White Whale Research Centre is also adamant that the whale spotted yesterday is Migaloo and said that “any suggestion it was not is wrong,” in a post on its Facebook page today.

 

“Truly the image of a lifetime!” said photographer Craig, who is off to Tonga next week on his own annual migration to document the humpback whales as they move through the warm waters of the South Pacific. 

You can read the original article about Craig’s once-in-a-lifetime experience in Australian Geographic here