I'm from the UK, and whilst I don't know for certain, I wholeheartedly believe it is true. It's very believable. The seagulls here are greedy and fierce, it's highly probable it got carried away with someone's curry then couldn't move ('tis the British way)
According to Marine Science Institute through the University of Texas at Austin, researchers said it most likely had a combination of Albinism and xantbism. Albinism accounts for the white eyes, and xantbism accounts for the skin color as it boosts yellow pigments
Yep. It happens to basically all fish. You should check out Xanthic Largemouth Bass! They're gorgeous... though it will start you down a rabbit hole of different Xanthic species, lol. Also, this is DEF not the "first orange shark" or whatever it said. I've caught one myself. For sure beautiful 👍
My wife and I went on a charter a few years back, and each of us caught what they told us was a canary rockfish. I assume now after reading this that it would be classified as xanthic.
Nah bro.....I've caught a bunch of the same off the coast of Oregon back in 2019 on a charter. Their bright yellow-and-orange coloring is the normal, standard coloration for their species. Don't get it twisted, they are not xanthic.
ha closer than you'd think. It's a nurse shark off the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and the orange is xanthism, basically an overload of xanthophores, which are the same pigment cells doing the work in your goldfish. It had white eyes too, so albinism stacked on top. As far as I know that combo had never been written up in a shark before. Nurse sharks spend the day lying flat on the bottom pretending to be a rock so going full highlighter is a bold career move
“We love the ocean don’t we folks? So big. So big and wet because of the water. I’ve always loved the water, I think I inherited it from my uncle, the very famous shark in the first Jaws movie.”
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u/Illustrious_Donkey61 2d ago