Albino Dolphin Spotted in Cameron

June 30, 2007

Reported by Jordan Sandler

Cameron parish residents say its not uncommon to see dolphins in the Calcasieu Ship Channel. But one in particular is causing quite a stir.

Out on the shrimping docks in Cameron, it's the buzz everybody's talking about.

A white dolphin swimming in the Calcasieu Ship Channel. Captured by the lense of Erik Rue last Sunday. So is it hite? Is it pink? What is it?

Marine Biologist Michael Harbison: "It's an albino bottle-nosed dolphin to our best guess, just looking at pictures, we have not actually put our eyes on it. They are pretty rare, I talked to some NOAA people and they occur occasionally, they just aren't seen very often."

"We were hoping to see it, but we never got to see it."

"No, nothing yet."

"Haven't seen the white ones yet, but they're here."

"They talk about it, but I've never seen it myself."

"Shrimpers say they've seen it, but I've never seen it."

You can leave land and try searching underwater. But even if you went to the edges of the earth, you may never catch a glimpse of another albino dolphin.

"Pretty rare, not many of them have been seen. There's almost no records on the web of albino dolphins being seen."

So will our rare friend stay around for much longer?

Harbison: "As long as the water stays salty, and it's pretty salty now, they can stay in shore for quite a while, it just depends on the conditions, they may go in and off shore all day long, just depending on conditions. So it may be seen again and it may not."

But that won't stop many from trying.

Marine biologists assume the albino dolphin is just a baby. It is actually white, but appears to be pink because of the red capillaries beneath its skin.