{"id":200425,"date":"2025-10-14T22:33:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200425\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T22:33:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:33:16","slug":"rare-white-humpback-whale-sighting-off-kaikoura-sparks-excitement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200425\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare white humpback whale sighting off Kaik\u014dura sparks excitement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\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
A white humpback whale, thought to be Migaloo, breaches near Kaik\u014dura on October 10, 2025. Photo \/ Georgia Phelps<\/p>\n
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
\u201cWe watched from a layby just around about Goose Bay, which is about 10 minutes south from Kaik\u014dura,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n
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
He was first seen here in 2015 and is known to travel in New Zealand waters \u2013 with gaps in sighting history.<\/p>\n
Whales are common around Kaik\u014dura, but for Phelps, sighting a white whale was on another level.<\/p>\n
\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
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
White whale Migaloo off the Gold Coast in 2012. Photo \/ AAP<\/p>\n
\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
Australian wildlife scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta has shared the images, hoping to identify the whale. <\/p>\n
\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
\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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[5349,86995,28197,71041,86994,86996,87000,27655,86999,1810,90,9774,54271,56,54,55,86998,34850,435,4407,86997,11552],"class_list":["post-200425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-back","tag-excitement","tag-following","tag-humpback","tag-kaikura","tag-migaloo","tag-near","tag-off","tag-possible","tag-rare","tag-science","tag-sighting","tag-sparks","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-waters","tag-whale","tag-white","tag-wildlife","tag-worldfamous","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}