KAKE, Alaska — A "less-than-once-in-a-lifetime" event – that's how researchers described seeing a white killer whale, or orca, in Alaska earlier this month.
University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate student Stephanie Hayes was the first to see the pod of killer whales just offshore of the village of Kake, a press release from the university said.
When the boat crew got closer, they noticed one of the orcas was "somehow glowing."
“There was a collective gasp from everybody on the bow,” Hayes said in the press release.
Hayes has been working as first mate of the Northern Song, operated by Captain Dennis Rogers, this summer. She studied killer whales while she was an undergrad in British Columbia, so she knew they were seeing a rare, special sight.
“There have only been about eight white killer whales ever recorded in the world,” she said by phone from Petersburg. “To have one in Southeast was an incredible phenomenon.”
Captain Rogers said it was the first while killer whale he'd seen in the more than 45 years of sailing on Southeast waters. The press release says Rogers often hosts researchers on the Northern Song, including those who study killer whales.
Perhaps even more rare, both Rogers and Hayes got to see the rare orca again just a few days later.
Rogers, who lives near the ocean, says he looked out a window and saw a pod of killer whales. When he got out his binoculars, he could see the white orca among the family of three or four. He called Hayes and she drove over and was able to spot them again as well. She was able to snap a photo, which Rogers then posted on his Facebook page, Alaska Sea Adventures.
Hayes, who studies squid as part of her graduate work at UAF, says the white killer whale has a condition called leucism, which she defined as a "lack of vibrancy" in its pigmentation.
With a bit of research, Hayes and Rogers found their white orca had been previously documented by British Columbia researchers. And he even has a name.
Tl'uk, which means moon in the language of the Salish peoples of the Pacific Northwest, is a two-year-old male killer whale who still lives with his family group. When it does, researchers say the calf's glow might be a disadvantage to another pod.
“A new pod might not accept it after it reaches sexual maturity,” Hayes said.
Still, Hayes says she hopes researchers "can monitor [Tl'uk] and find out what happens in the life of a white killer whale.”
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