VIDEO: Albino Dolphin Spotted Along Monterey Bay

Albino dolphins are extremely rare and actually seeing one is a great deal of luck!

Patrons of the Princess Monterey Whale Watching Cruise were lucky enough to witness a small white dolphin swimming and playing about with its friends.

At one point, the adorable creature even seemed to be waving at the crowd!

According to Wikipedia, albinism in biology is the “Congenital absence of any pigmentation or coloration in a person, animal or plant, resulting in white hair and pink eyes in mammals.” Varied use and interpretation of the terms mean that written reports of albinistic animals can be difficult to verify.

Albinism can reduce the survivability of an animal, for example, it has been suggested that albino alligators have an average survival span of only 24 hours due to the lack of protection from UV and their lack of camouflage to avoid predators. Albino animals have characteristic pink or red eyes because the lack of pigment in the iris allows the blood vessels of the retina to be visible.

Familiar albino animals include in-bred strains of laboratory animals, but populations of naturally occurring albino animals exist in the wild, e.g. Mexican cave tetra. Albinism is a well-recognized phenomenon in molluscs, both in the shell and in the soft parts.

It has been claimed by some, e.g. that “albinism” can occur for a number of reasons aside from inheritance including genetic mutations, diet, living conditions, age, disease, or injury, however, this is contrary to definitions where the condition is inherited.

In plants, albinism is characterised by partial or complete loss of chlorophyll pigments and incomplete differentiation of chloroplast membranes. Albinism in plants interferes with photosynthesis, which can reduce survivability.

Some plant variations may have white flowers or other parts. However, these plants are not totally devoid of chlorophyll. Terms associated with this phenomenon are “hypochromia” and “albiflora”.

Definitions of albinism vary and are inconsistent. Whilst they are clear and precise for humans and other mammals, this is because the majority of mammals have only one pigment, melanin. Many animals have pigments other than melanin, and some also have structural colours. Some definitions of albinism, whilst taking most taxa into account, ignore others.

So, “a person or animal with very pale skin, white hair or fur, and pink eyes caused by a medical condition that they were born with” and “a person or animal with white skin and hair and pink eyes” do not include feathers, scales or cuticles of birds, fish and invertebrates.

Other definitions of albinism encompass most of the major animal taxa, but ignore the several other pigments that non-mammalian animals have and also structural colouration. For example, “Absence of the pigment melanin in the eyes, skin, hair, scales, or feathers.” refers only to the pigment melanin.

Because of the various uses of different terms applied to colouration, some authors have indicated that the colour of the eyes is the defining characteristic of albinism, e.g. “This leads to a good diagnostic feature with which to distinguish leucistic and albino individuals – the colour of the eye.