Stark against the blue ocean and next to its dark-coloured mother, a rare white southern right whale calf has been caught on camera as part of a study into the mysterious beasts.
It's not quite Moby Dick, but researchers from Murdoch University's Cetacean Research Unit have released the footage taken by drone off the coast of Western Australia.
It shows the mother, who has a large white patch of her own, with a mostly dark-coloured calf with a white patch on its belly and the other baby, which has the polar opposite colouring peppered with dark spots.
White whale calf (Fredrick Christiansen/Murdoch University)
The team, which also included researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark, is using a new approach to learn more about how the mammals behave in breeding and calving grounds.
They used suction cup tags and drones to look at acoustic communications, ambient noise, calf suckling rates and the body condition of the whales.
Professor Lars Bejder from Murdoch University says they also wanted to find out how human activity affected the whales.
White whale calf (Fredrick Christiansen/Murdoch University)
"Little is known about the fine-scale movements and habitat use of southern right whales on their breeding and calving grounds in Australia - many of which are slated for development activity, including associated increases in shipping, marine tourism and recreational activity," Prof Bejder says.
Aside from the non-invasive drones, the team approached the whales on a small boat, and using a long hand-held pole, attached digital acoustic recording tags to seven whales.
They stuck to the whales for 24 hours and sent back data about where the whales went, the vocalisations they made and calf suckling rates.
A whale calf (Fredrick Christiansen/Murdoch University)
The researchers say the information will help management agencies develop conservation strategies to protect the species where coastal development is proposed.
Newshub.
