Aussie's rare 10-minute encounter left tourists 'completely blow away'

Yahoo

20 hours ago

In 17 years of swimming alongside humpback whales in Tonga, Tris has witnessed just about everything – mothers guiding their calves, thunderous breaches, curious eyes peeking from the roaring waves of Ha'apai. But nothing prepared her for what she saw on a recent drive.
Originally from Yallingup, in the southwest of Western Australia, Tris has run her business from the Pacific Island nation for almost two decades. There, she leads tours through the surrounding waters, giving travellers the rare chance to swim alongside some of the ocean's most awe-inspiring giants.
For most people, swimming beside humpback whales, which are known to grow up to 18 metres long and weigh 40 tonnes, is a rare enough experience. But swimming beside a "porcelain, pure-white" coloured calf? That's practically unheard of, Tris said in an interview with Yahoo News Australia.
"It was like a dream," she said of the September encounter. "I just felt like I was holding my breath. I've swum with thousands and thousands of whales and calves, and to me, it didn't seem real."
"I couldn't help thinking it was more precious than everything else."
Due to the genetic mutations that cause their lack of pigmentation, white whales are extremely uncommon. True albinism is the result of a recessive gene that both parents must carry — a rare combination in wild populations. Leucism, another condition that causes pale or patchy colouring, is also unusual and not well understood in whales, making this experience all the more extraordinary.
At the time, Tris had heard reports that an all-white calf was swimming in the area with its mother, while a friend spotted another in Vavaʻu, about 100 nautical miles north. Tris said she'd never seen an albino herself, despite her years of experience, yet suddenly, she was confronted with two young albino females. Initially there was speculation the pair might have been confused as the same individual, but "after analysing photos of the mothers", she "knew we were dealing with two separate calves" in the region.
Tris, of Whale Discoveries, was initially hesitant about taking guests to swim with the baby. "I was very aware of the pressure this whale may have encountered or may encounter in the future with people's desire to swim with it," she said. But eventually, she decided she would take a group, but only for a maximum of 10 minutes.
"They were completely blown away, even seeing the whale from above the water," she recalled. "We discussed whether we should get in with it or not, ethically. We decided on a quick swim, and they were so grateful and appreciative.
"They realised how rare it was. We have strict regulations in Tonga, and we abided by them, but we were extra careful with the white baby."
Reflecting on the magical moment she spent with the calf, made even more emotional after having lost her own son, Tris described the encounter as "just indescribably beautiful".
"I kind of had expectations that it might behave differently. But in actual fact, mum and baby just acted like any normal mum and baby. We saw it breaching with its mum, playing. It approached us like any other calf might do. The immaculate state of her, no scratches, no cuts. Just pure pristine white.
"When she came really close, I looked at her and saw her bloodstained eye. That's when we knew it was true albinism."
This week, another white calf was spotted off the NSW Mid North Coast, prompting Tris to reach out to share her remarkable experience and help spark greater interest in these rare sightings. Earlier this month, a white whale was spotted off the Queensland coast near K'gari, generating further excitement.
For Tris, she believes it's "definitely possible there's some family connection" to Migaloo, the famous albino humpback first detected in 1991. He was seen frequently over the decades, and very likely mated and produced several generations of offspring, but since 2020, he has seemingly vanished.
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Though there's no way to tell if any of the recent whale sightings are in any way connected, experts say Migaloo's "genes are still out there". "We haven't proven that Migaloo isn't around anymore — he may have made it to the east coast of Australia the year before, then returned to Tonga to birth the white calf we saw," Tris suggested.
"He had a long breeding history, so he may have fathered the calves we're now seeing in Tonga. If the genetics are stretching across the Tongan whales, that's an interesting thought."
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