The scientists would like to establish whether Iceberg is albino — a genetic condition that leaves animals unable to produce melanin, a dark pigment of skin, hair and the eye’s retina and iris. Many albino animals never grow into adulthood. Their visibility is a disadvantage in the hunt for food and protection against predators.

Two other white orcas are known to live in the waters where Iceberg was spotted, east of Kamtchatka peninsula in Russia’s far-east, but they are juveniles. In 1970, a two-year-old white orca, Chimo, was captured in Canada for a dolphinarium, and was diagnosed with a type of albinism after its death two years later…