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Albino whale shark caught on camera
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A dive guide in Equador's Galapagos Islands has captured what are thought to be the first ever images of a massive, all-white whale shark.
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Antonio Moreano, a qualified naturalist, was with a group of diving tourists off the eastern coast of Darwin Island. Preparing to dive, they were still in a tender deployed from the liveaboard Deep Blue when the shark's gigantic, pale form was seen to approach.
Moreano entered the water with just mask and fins and managed, as the shark swam through, to momentarily stay with it and capture some fine shots of the creature - as special an experience for him as, say, meeting an albino elephant might be for a bush adventurer. Charles Darwin would have been fascinated.
A British group dived shortly afterward with Moreano during a charter in the area aboard another liveaboard, Daphne. Trip organiser Anne-Marie Kitchen-Wheeler told Divernet: 'Antonia told us how, while still in the panga, he had immediately recognised the creature as a whale shark from its size - but thought it must be swimming upside-down to have been so white!'
The shark was identified as a female adult of 10m or more in length. Moreano had seen its eye, which was also white. Once back in Britain, Kitchen-Wheeler did some research and concluded that the sighting was most probably 'the first report of an albino whale shark, although occasional reports of other [different types of] sharks have been made'.
She marvelled that the shark had survived for as long as 30-odd years, particularly through its more vulnerable juvenile phase. 'The albino colouring would make the animal more susceptible to predation by large sharks or orcas, due to the lack of camouflage when seen from above,' she said.
* Equadorian officials have reversed a previous ban on diving liveaboards that did not have special permits for diving in the Galapagos. For a period of about six weeks, the ban effectively meant that only certain vessels from the Peter Hughes and Aggressor fleets could operate.
In the about-turn, it has been decreed that, until the end of the year, boats previously active can continue to operate. But from 1 January 2008 permits will be required - so the question is now who will get the required certification to continue in business as Galapagos dive boat operators.
Photography: Antonio Moreano |
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