Mini Migaloo has a whale of a time off the NSW coast

LAURA SPERANZA
The Sunday Telegraph
October 09, 2011 12:00AM

MEET mini Migaloo – the baby albino humpback whale that’s been making a big splash off the NSW coast.

The playful calf, aged between two and five months, thrilled hundreds of whale watchers at Bondi Beach yesterday, as it passed Sydney with its mother on its migration south about 11am yesterday.

Lapping up the attention of one group of tourists aboard a Whale Watching Sydney vessel as it passed by, the youngster joyfully jumped out of the water several times as if to pose for the cameras.

While it would take a DNA test to remove any doubt, National Parks whale expert Geoff Ross said it was “highly likely” the calf was the offspring of the famous Migaloo – the world’s only all-white humpback whale.

Migaloo, spotted last Sunday off Cape Byron on the state’s northern coast, is now swimming past Eden, about a week ahead of Migaloo Junior and the mother.

“It’s a beautiful, very healthy calf,” Mr Ross said. “The chances of it being Migaloo’s are high. I’m very surprised to see two albinos so close together in distance.

“Even if you have one albino, it is very rare for the melanistic gene to be passed.”

He said it would be Migaloo junior’s first visit to Sydney.

Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/mini-migaloo-has-a-whale-of-a-time-off-the-nsw-coast/story-e6frf00i-1226161943392