For the first time when white killer whale filmed

Russian researchers first captured wild albino killer whale. The male whale got the name Iceberg after its 2 metres long snow white doral fin which was showing from the water.

Iceberg, the Albino killer whale with its mates | Photo from Origo

The fully white killer whale ( Orcinus orca ) was photographed and filmed in the north of the Pacific Ocean near the Commander Islands by researchers from the Moscow and St. Petersburg Universities. The area around the Commander Islands are Russia’s largest marine reserve. The experts studied social behavior and acoustic communication of the populations of whales and dolphins within an internation scientific program. Iceberg lives together with its 12 relatives in a family community, a so-called ‘School’. There are 61 similar killer whales schools in the region and this is one of them. The schools are parts of the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP), which continues researches there for 12 years. Researchers suggest to enlarge the area and to work out a plan which will protect more better the different species of whales and dolphins. This would be very important because there is over-fishing in the regio. In addition the oil and gas exploration is very active there. The increased noise and vessel traffic are endanger the marine mammals and the researchers afraid of a possible oil contamination as well.

“Iceberg is symbol of the pure, wild and exciting things which are waiting in the ocean to discover them.” – said Erich Hoyt, the co-director of the FEROP and researcher of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS).  “The challenge is to keep the ocean healthy, because any time can occur such surprises” – he added.

Scientists and conservationists hope that the uniqueness of Iceberg draws even more the attention to the killer whales and other cetaceans need to protect.

/Video from the Russia Today/

Written by Ilona Kaszanyi

Tagged albinism animals, albino, Commander Islands, Dolphin, Iceberg, Orcinus orca, Russian researchers, white killer whale, Wildlife Conservation Society