Friday, March 07, 2008

Mythical sea creature surfaces


"Have you seen the white whale?" Now you have, check out these pictures of Moby Orca, the white killer whale. Once the stuff of legends, now we know the white whale is real.

Answering the plea of Captain Ahab in Melville's Moby Dick, Scientists studying fish spotted the white orca off Alaska's Aleutian Islands.

There's much to this sighting, beyond positive ID and photos of a nearly-white Orcinus orca, or killer whale. Now, combing the ocean, scientists are putting the truth or lie to many myths and mysteries of the sea, for better or worse. Would we prefer the mysteries to remain? Or is it better to know?

The white whale is a large male, apparently healthy, and it's not an albino because it has small amounts of light yellow or light brown color in some patches.

A magnificent sight, a myth revealed, and the ocean is a tiny bit less mysterious today. But not to worry, I'm sure there are many, many more secrets still hiding. Goodbye for now, Moby orca, go back down to the earth's last uncharted realm.

2 comments:

David J. Hirsh said...

Now that something you don't see every day! All the best to the family, Marc.

David

Anonymous said...

That's wonderful! I'd love to have seen it. You know, as much as we think we know, as much as we've seen, there's always something new. We aren't half as familiar with this planet as we think we are.