Migaloo spotted on its way to Queensland - 25 June

The rare white whale, Migaloo, has been sighted near the Solitary Islands off Coffs Harbour on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

The whale is on its northerly migration from Antarctica to breeding grounds in Queensland.

The manager of Coffs Harbour's Sea Experience charters, Chris Bramley, says Migaloo was spotted at around 10:00am AEST.

He says last year Southern Cross university researchers were able to get a skin specimen from the unusual whale, and testing revealed Migaloo is an albino and a male.

Mr Bramley says seeing the rare mammal in real life and up close is an amazing experience.

"He glows, absolutely glows in the water and he's pure stark white, not even an ivory white, he's pure white," he said.

"He's in really good health, everyone's just hoping at the moment that he's a breeding male.

"It's something unique, I'd hazard a guess to say he's probably one of the rarest animals in the world.

"I think they estimate the population of Humpbacks to be around 40,000, so he's 1:40,000, pretty unique."

Humpback whale researchers will be monitoring the waters of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland tomorrow, after today's sighting.

Mr Bramley says Migaloo is moving north quickly and could reach waters off the Gold Coast on Monday.

"He was in a pod of four whales, all much around the same size," he said.

"He was travelling probably almost twice the speed he was travelling last year when we caught up with him.

"At times we need to track with him nearly at four knots to keep up with him.

"Then finally they settled down around the boat and they actually came over to the boat and he took some time with us."

Full story at http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200606/s1671381.htm

Contributed by Tim Hochgrebe added 2006-07-01