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Rare grey-white orca calf sighted in Juan de Fuca strait near Vancouver Island (PHOTOS)

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A rare white orca calf was spotted by a whale watching group over the past weekend in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

The highly recognizable calf made an appearance amongst its pod of T46B Bigg’s transient killer whale family and according to Island Adventures Whale Watching, appeared to be feeding on a marine mammal.

See also: Victoria man films orca swimming through inner harbour Friday morning (PHOTOS/VIDEO)

Identified as T46B1B or Tl’uk (which means ‘moon’ in Coast Salish), the orca calf is about a year old and was first spotted in November 2018 near Nanaimo.

Tl’uk is not an albino calf as he has a distinct grey-white colour. Researches say he either has leucism which causes loss of pigmentation in any cell or suffers from Chediak-Higashi Syndrome.

While the former has no association with serious health risks, Chediak-Higashi Syndrome may signal several serious health conditions and a short lifespan.

Check out the T-Party we had in the Salish Sea yesterday!!!http://blog.island-adventures.com/2019/10/october-12-2019.html

Posted by Island Adventures Whale Watching on Sunday, October 13, 2019

(Island Adventures Whale Watching)
(Island Adventures Whale Watching)
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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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