Mar 25th, 2017: White Whale

[xoxoxoBruce]

Whosoever of ye raises me a white-headed whale with a wrinkled brow and a crooked jaw; whosoever
of ye raises me that white-headed whale, with three holes punctured in his starboard fluke - look ye,
whosoever of ye raises me that same white whale, he shall have this gold ounce, my boys!
It's a white whale," I say, resumed Ahab, a white whale. "Skin your eyes for him, men; look sharp for
white water; if ye see but a bubble, sing out."



"Captain Ahab, I have heard of Moby Dick - but it was not Moby Dick that took off thy leg?"
"Who told thee that?" cried Ahab; then pausing, "Aye, Starbuck; aye, my hearties all round; it was
Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now.
Aye, aye," he shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose;
"Aye, aye! it was that accursed white whale that razeed me; made a poor pegging lubber of me for
ever and a day!"

Then tossing both arms, with measureless imprecations he shouted out: "Aye, aye! and I'll chase him
round Good Hope, and round the horn, and round the norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames
before I give him up. And this is what ye have shipped for, men! to chase that white whale on both
sides of land, and over all sides of earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out. What say ye, men,
will ye splice hands on it, now? I think ye do look brave."

[Griff]

I'm the ahole who loved that book.

[Snakeadelic]

Lotsa ppl love that book! And wouldn't you be an a-HAB instead of an a-HOLE?

I'm the total wildlife geek that can tell you the NAME of the whale in the pic. It's definitely a humpback because no other whale species has pectoral fins anywhere near that long, so if this shot was taken off Australia it's gotta be Migaloo. There are some albino and high-white-marked babies showing up in the population that hangs around Australia part of the year, but Migaloo is the only adult white humpback in that group so far.

Much less is known about the life and times of the other white humpback adult, Willow, because she hangs out off the coast of Norway where it's harder to get a look from land and more dangerous to be out on the water most of the year.

As far as I'm aware, those are the only two confirmed all-white adult humpback whales in the world. I think Migaloo is an albino (pink eyes) but they don't have good enough pics of Willow yet to determine albino vs. leucistic (dark eyes). There's an orca in a non-migratory Russian coastal population that's believed to be a leucistic; his nickname is Iceberg (gender verified by dorsal fin shape) and instead of black-and-white he's tan-and-white. I've personally seen with my own eyes a wild black-billed magpie with exactly the same kind of leucism in the county where I live, but I wasn't able to get a pic of it .

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, it's Migaloo.
My CB handle was Captain Ahab.

[Undertoad]

white whale means white whale penis

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Snakeadelic

There are some albino and high-white-marked babies showing up in the population that hangs around Australia part of the year, but Migaloo is the only adult white humpback in that group so far.

Originally Posted by Undertoad

white whale means white whale penis

And if Migaloo is fatherin' all those albino babies, that means he's a straight white male with a straight white penis.

[footfootfoot]

As a kid, my favorite relevant joke was a bumpersticker I saw that read, Moby Dick Is Not A Social Disease. As a 12 year old I thought this was hilarious.

[xoxoxoBruce]

It still is.