Albino whaleshark photographed in the Galapagos

[OceanObsessed]

An albino whaleshark was photographed in the Galapagos.
It's a good thing they had a camera because nobody would have believed them

 

[cowjazz]

The video of this shark was shot by Luis Alberto Jara Mosquera, dive master on the yacht Deep Blue, off Darwin Island around August 24th 2007.

Luis provided a copy of his video to a few guests on the Deep Blue. It is an amazing, awe inspiring video. Absolutely breathtaking.

Luis shot the shark from head to tail on his first dive. They eyes of the shark are indeed white. In fact, The entire shark is white. There are no spots or color variations. He boarded a panga, found the shark again, and filmed it a second time from above.

 

[archman]

Wow... white eyes. I wonder if that makes it a true albino, leucistic, or something else entirely.

Talk about a great tourist attraction! The Great White Whale... shark.

 

[Tigerman]

Quite a cool whaleshark. Sadly a weaker specimen than the regular colored ones tho. Albinos are not as healthy as their "normal" siblings..

 

[archman]

Sadly a weaker specimen than the regular colored ones tho. Albinos are not as healthy as their "normal" siblings..

Eh, that's obsolescent information taken mostly from studying sunburned humans. It's been amended considerably in recent times. So long as an albino critter avoids getting eaten when it's a baby, it normally does just fine.

Case in point: Look how BIG this freaking whale shark is!

 

[OceanObsessed]

Fyi, there are more photos of this shark over at wetpixel.

 

[aubie85]

:10: Absolutely gorgeous