Rare white killer whale is spotted in Aleutian Islands

Photo by H. Fearnbach, NOAA National Marine Mammal Laboratory.

Scientists aboard the NOAA research ship Oscar Dyson experienced a rare sighting Feb. 23, when they came upon a white killer whale swimming with its normal black and white brethren in the Bering Sea.

At the time, the ship's crew was about two miles off Kanaga Volcano, part of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, taking stock of populations of Pollock. The fish is a critical winter food for threatened Steller sea lions.

Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist at NOAA’s National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, captured photographs of the unusual animal. Few while killer whales have ever been seen, let alone photographed, she said.

To see her pictures in higher resolution, go to Picture 1, Picture 2 and Picture 3.

Doug DeMaster, director of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, said the scientific team has been collecting extensive information despite the stormy winter weather.

“Extraordinary sightings like this white whale are icing on the cake,” he said.

The whale is not a true albino because of darker pigmented areas on its body. A true albino would have a pink eye, but the NOAA vessel did not get close enough for confirmation.

Experts say the white coloration could be the result of Chediak-Higashi Syndrome, an inherited condition of the immune and nervous system.

In any case, the white whale will help other researchers track the group of orcas if it is seen again this year. Scientists will use the photos to decide whether this white whale might have been seen before. Sightings have been reported in the Aleutian Islands, as well as in the Bering Sea and off the Russian Coast.

Fidel Castro resigns as President

Over the past two months, RCC has seen the resignation of President Daniel Castro, the hiring and the transition of an acting president for an interim president and progress on the search for a replacement for Chancellor Salvatore Rotella.

The controversy began Dec. 8 when Tish Chavez, Castro's assistant, sent a mass e-mail to all faculty, staff and administration at RCC.

The e-mail was sent on the behalf of Castro and announced his resignation as president as of Dec. 11.

"I have had the opportunity to work with some of the best administrators, faculty, staff and students," Castro's e-mail read. "(I) know that I leave RCC in good hands."

Technically, Castro would remain president until the end of the year. Chancellor Rotella, however, chose Linda Lacy, then the vice chancellor of Student Services, to serve as acting president in Castro's absence.

No rationale for the sudden departure was given at the time, nor has one been confirmed as of now, but the lack of evidence did not stop the events to follow.

Accusations from faculty members on all sides of the issue began to surface, all of which remained consistent with the individual views of Castro's performance as president.

The first of these comments came Dec. 12 when Political Science instructors Dariush Haghighat and Ward Schinke sent their views via e-mail to the RCC administration, attacking Castro's previous record at other schools and his demeanor as president of RCC.

One of the major points the instructors made was the lack of information that the hiring committee gathered. "One of us served on Castro's hiring committee and what bothered this member... was the fact that nobody from this college was provided an opportunity to do any field research," the letter stated.

Another large problem that the e-mail addressed was the changing of class schedules; Haghighat and Schinke declared that the altered schedule could be linked to the drop in enrollment at RCC.

But it was not just the alleged administrative errors that Haghighat and Schinke dealt with, but what they claimed was Castro's "lack of vision... and his absolute contempt for the principle of shared governance."