{"id":497289,"date":"2025-10-13T23:01:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497289\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T23:01:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:01:11","slug":"rare-white-humpback-whale-sighting-off-kaikoura-sparks-excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/497289\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare white humpback whale sighting off Kaik\u014dura sparks excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cAnd you just saw a glimpse the first time it came up to the surface, but we ended up watching for maybe an hour and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"A white humpback whale, thought to be Migaloo, breaches near Kaik\u014dura on October 10, 2025. Photo \/ Georgia Phelps\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>A white humpback whale, thought to be Migaloo, breaches near Kaik\u014dura on October 10, 2025. Photo \/ Georgia Phelps<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">Phelps had been tipped off about their rare visitor by friends Abi and Megan, who had seen the white whale heading towards the well-known whale-watching town. <\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWe watched from a layby just around about Goose Bay, which is about 10 minutes south from Kaik\u014dura,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">Migaloo translates as \u201cwhite fella\u201d in the Mayi-Katuna Aboriginal language from north Queensland, as he was first sighted in 1991 off the coast of Byron Bay. However, he has not been spotted around Australia since 2020.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">He was first seen here in 2015 and is known to travel in New Zealand waters \u2013 with gaps in sighting history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">Whales are common around Kaik\u014dura, but for Phelps, sighting a white whale was on another level.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI\u2019ve lived here on and off now for eight years, but it\u2019s still pretty special when you see any of the animals. But, yeah, this was incredible. I didn\u2019t even know white whales existed,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">She said she\u2019s not aware of any further sightings in the area \u2013 but has reported her experience with the official Migaloo sighting page.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"White whale Migaloo off the Gold Coast in 2012. Photo \/ AAP\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>White whale Migaloo off the Gold Coast in 2012. Photo \/ AAP<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI mean, we don\u2019t know if it is Migaloo or a different one, but there\u2019s definitely been some hype around it,\u201d Phelps said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">Australian wildlife scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta has shared the images, hoping to identify the whale. <\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThere are other white whales out there \u2013 two white humpback whale calves were observed in Tonga last year,\u201d Pirotta\u2019s Instagram post read.<\/p>\n<p class=\"iNwUpnfLcxPBLSL\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cKiwi whale watchers, if you see this whale, please keep your distance and snap photos\/video and send them to the White Whale Research Centre.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cAnd you just saw a glimpse the first time it came up to the surface, but we ended&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[13695,163499,51879,150398,163498,163500,63094,31020,10915,27001,70,43816,61299,16,15,53205,22023,7674,1717,163501,9642],"class_list":{"0":"post-497289","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-back","9":"tag-excitement","10":"tag-following","11":"tag-humpback","12":"tag-kaikura","13":"tag-migaloo","14":"tag-near","15":"tag-off","16":"tag-possible","17":"tag-rare","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-sighting","20":"tag-sparks","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-waters","24":"tag-whale","25":"tag-white","26":"tag-wildlife","27":"tag-worldfamous","28":"tag-zealand"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115369350649869901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}