If you are a fan of literary works based on sea life, you must have an idea about the classical literary piece named " Moby Dick". This book depicted a rare white sperm whale which is one of the rarest to be found sailing around. It was seen on the coast of Jamaica a few days ago.
Thank Goodness for mobile technology, when a Dutch oil tanker's captain Leo Van Toly saw this amazing sight, he was quick to record it with his mobile camera. Although the video was a short one, it captured the amazing scene of the rare " Moby dick" near the water's surface.
The captain could not believe his eyes on seeing the rare sight. He sent the video to one of his acquaintances named Annemarie van de berg. Annemarie is the director of SOS dolfijn. It is an organization that works towards the safety of whales. They quickly confirmed from experts about the whale in the video being the rare white sperm whale and then shared that exclusive video on their social media accounts.
Moby Dick was portrayed as a monster in Herman's famous novel. That monstrous whale was hunted down by captain Ahab who lost one of his legs to Moby Dick in a previous encounter.
The novel is written as the narration and the narrator of the story is Ishmael who was a sailor himself. However, no doubt that the character of Moby Dick was a fictional character but white sperm whales are a real species, although they are highly rare and hard to find.
One may wonder why are they so white?
Well, it's a medical condition. They might either be suffering from Albinism or leucism. These conditions hinder the ability of these great animals to produce a pigment called melanin. Melanin is responsible for the gray color of normal whales.
All in all, it was surely a special occasion for all whale lovers to see a white sperm whale once again. The last recorded sighting of a white sperm male was in 2015.
Many scientists believe it's almost impossible to tell how many white sperm whales are present because of their great ability to hide.
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