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Boaters in Louisiana do a double-take after spotting a rare pink dolphin
We've never seen anything like Pinky!
Jessica
06.17.21

Meet Pinky, one of the rarest dolphins in the world! This unique dolphin is bright, bubblegum pink.

Captain Erik Rue was the first person to spot Pinky all the way back in 2007. Rue is a charter boat captain with Calcasieu Charter Service in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

In June 2007, he and four other people on his boat spotted Pinky, who was a baby then. She was swimming with her with mom, looking as happy as could be.

Rue couldn’t believe his eyes!

Word quickly spread about this unique dolphin, and more and more people started coming to Lake Charles just to see her.

YouTube - WFLA News Channel 8
Source:
YouTube - WFLA News Channel 8

But even after seeing photos, people are still shocked to see how pink Pinky actually is.

“I think many are a bit surprised when they actually see it and it’s actually bright pink like we’ve told them,” Rue told ABC. “They say ‘Oh my gosh it’s really pink.’ They are surprised that it’s just the way we described it to them.

Rue has taken tons of incredible photos of Pinky over the years. He hopes to one day compile them into a coffee-table book.

Scientists aren’t positive about why Pinky is pink, but they believe it may either be a form of albinism or a rare genetic mutation. Kerry Sanchez, a dolphin expert from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, thinks that’s it a form of genetic variation:

“So what they get from mom and what they get from dad means they can look a little bit different than that perfect image we expect,” Sánchez told WFLA. “Seeing an animal that is extremely light in color is not something we would normally expect to see. And in my full time here, we’ve never seen an animal that looks like that.”

Over the years, a few different people have been able to capture videos of Pinky swimming.

In 2013, filmmakers from Kingdom Zoo took an incredible video of Pinky swimming with some of her friends.

In August 2017, a woman named Bridget Boudreaux captured another video of Pinky. Bourdeaux said that she saw Pinky swimming with a tiny pink dolphin who might have been her calf. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to capture a video of both dolphins.

“I about fell out the boat,” Boudreaux told KHOU. “I was like, wow, that’s not a regular dolphin, that’s a pink dolphin.”

The little pink dolphin has been spotted many times since then!

Now, Pinky’s fans can visit the dolphin’s Facebook page to get the latest news.

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In the years since Pinky was first spotted, she has become an internet celebrity. She now has a Facebook page with thousands of followers who love getting news about their favorite dolphin.

And while Pinky is a truly unique dolphin that has captured the world’s attention for her playful personality, she’s not the only pink dolphin out there!

We just hope people are careful and respectful around Pinky and the dolphins like her.

Be sure to scroll down below for one of the many amazing videos of Pinky!

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