In a remarkable encounter, tourists off the coast of Phuket, Thailand, recently became the lucky ones to spot an extremely rare white whale. The extraordinary sighting occurred on the first day of the new year when passengers aboard the boat 'Happy Ours' witnessed the once-in-a-lifetime glimpse of an all-white Omura's Whale swimming alongside another whale, the New York Post reported.
The whale was spotted approximately 5.6 miles south of Coral Island, a part of the Phuket Province.
According to the BBC, the first living Omura's whale was seen in the wild in 2015, but this is the first known sighting of what could be an albino of the species off Thailand.
Watch the video here:
Omura's whales, classified as a rare species primarily inhabiting Southeast Asian seas and waters south of Japan, have occasionally been sighted in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand.
Pinsak Surasawadi, the newly appointed chief of the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, said the department's animal expert team scoured the area where an albino Omura's whale was spotted but has not found it yet, Bangkok Post reported.
Professor Thon Thamrongnawasawat from Kasetsart University's Department of Marine Science mentioned the sighting on Facebook, saying the chances of seeing the incredibly rare white Omura whale is about 1 in 10 million or more.
Officials are now stepping up the search for the marine creature and a surveillance vessel with a drone has been deployed to survey the area.
Omura's whales are on a list of protected animals under the Wild Animal Conservation and Protection Act BE 2562 (2019) due to diminishing numbers.
