Rare albino dolphin sighted in Yilan

Taipei, April 28 (CNA) A rare albino spinner dolphin was spotted in the waters off Yilan County in northeastern Taiwan on Sunday, according to a whale-watching tour operator.

"This is the first time I've seen an albino spinner dolphin in over a decade!" the company, Kai-ching Whale-watching Boat, said in a Facebook post the same day.

According to the company, the exceptionally white creature was swimming among a pod of hundreds of spinner dolphins near Guishan Island.

The mammal appeared not to be fully grown and was swimming next to a larger female, believed to be its mother, the company said.

Lin Cheng-hao (林正浩), a guide with the tour boat company, said that albinism in animals occurs at a rate of about one in 30,000, making the sighting exceptionally rare.

Passengers aboard the tour boat who saw the albino dolphin expressed amazement and said they were "extremely lucky," according to the company.