Image: Achah/Deviant Art
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"It may well be just a growth, or it could be skin cancer, we're just not too sure at the moment," said White Whale Research Centre founder Oskcar Peterson.The photos were turned over to Peter Harrison, a whale expert and professor at Southern Cross University who said that it was probably something to keep an eye on next time Migaloo is photographed. "It will be very interesting to see whether or not this redness has disappeared, or whether or not it has obviously become more inflamed which would indicate some sort of infection and I guess there is a possibility that it might be early stages of cancer as well," he said. "It looks like a little tissue bruising, there's some other discolouration nearby…at this stage of course we simply can't tell.”We just don't know about Migaloo. He's swimming strong and is still “a young fellow” as Peterson puts it, so maybe there's nothing to worry about. But the whole thing got me wondering about how frequently skin cancer appears in white whales. After all, a lack of pigmentation puts pale people at risk. And this was the first time I'd heard of a whale getting skin cancer—but if any whale would get it, wouldn't a white whale be the likeliest? Like, maybe Moby-Dick was really just a white whale with a Walter White-esque problem, and that's why he kept eating people's limbs.Red marks near #Migaloo1 dorsal fin are interesting. It might be rub marks or it could be early signs of skin cancer. pic.twitter.com/d63IVn9EKW
— Migaloo the Whale (@Migaloo1) June 25, 2014
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