Environment

Migaloo the Celebrity White Humpback Whale Sighted in Australia

by Amy Judd | July 1, 2009 at 07:35 pm

590 views | 40 Recommendations | 5 comments

Migaloo is something of a celebrity in the whaling world. He even has his own website.

He's a very rare, white Humpback Whale, and he made his appearance off the eastern coast of Australia yesterday, marking the beginning of the Australian whale watching season.

Every year he swims from the coast of New South Whales to northern Queensland and every year people are excited to see him and no one is allowed to get too close to him. Boats and jet skis cannot get more than 500 metres closer to him, and aircraft have to be at least 2,000 feet above him. Anyone who breaks these rules will have to pay a hefty fine of up to $16,500.

Environment Minister Kate Jones had this to say about Migaloo:

“Migaloo has been declared a special-interest whale, granting him more space to swim up the Queensland coast,” Ms Jones said.

“The whale-watching regulations are there to protect the whales, but also to protect people from these huge, unpredictable mammals.

“Adult humpbacks can weigh more than a fully-loaded semi-trailer so you need to stay out of their way.”

Migaloo is about 20 years old and weighs about 40 tonnes. He was first sighted in 1991 and is usually seen about once a year. Migaloo means 'white fella' in the Aboriginal world, and he is one of 11,000 humpback whales that migrate every year, but he is the only white one.

Migaloo is so distinctive that people see him as an ambassador for the humpback's declining population.

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Roy C

at 21:04 on July 1st, 2009

Fantastic video.

Paschen

at 20:57 on July 1st, 2009

I am glad they have some rules in place, even though I would like to see the distances to be tripled and the noise of the machines (Motors) to be banned.

Pythiian1

at 21:06 on July 1st, 2009

Thanks, Amy for this story about Migaloo :-)

neilabraham

at 00:11 on July 7th, 2009

Migaloo has just swam past my nearest beach here in Southeast Queensland. Everyone here loves it when he transits our sunny coastline. Good story! Thanks