Words by

Catharine Fulton

A rare whale has been spotted in Skjálfandi Bay in the north of Iceland. Observers believe it to be a hybrid of a blue whale and fin whale.
Whale watchers in Húsavík have been seeing the mixed breed whale for the past two years. He or she is the size and colour of a blue whale but has the dorsal fin of a fin whale, RÚV reports.
“We already have 4 confirmed examples of hybrid fin whales in Iceland, with the first one coming to our attention in 1986,” said Gísli Víkingsson, a whale expert with the Marine Research Institute. “This animal has the same shape as the other 4, which is why we suspect this one is a hybrid, too.”
Researchers will be trying to get a skin sample of the whale to confirm its genetic mixture.