Experts are hoping an incredibly rare albino humpback whale may be spotted off the Illawarra or South Coast this week.
The young female whale, which has been named Siale, is only the second albino humpback known on Australia's east coast (after the hugely famous Migaloo).
Siale was spotted off Ulladulla last week by a drone operator from whale rescue organisation ORRCA, with the brief footage proving enough to identify her.
But she was heading north, while migrating whales usually head south at this time of year, and observers don't know why.
"This is extremely rare," ORRCA's Pip Jacobs said.
"It's estimated that just 1 in 40,000 humpback birds are albino humpbacks."
ORRCA was able to track Siale's movements until the weekend, when she was spotted off Swansea near Newcastle on Saturday, November 8, but not since.
It's a long way from Antarctica, to where most humpback whales will soon have returned after their annual migration north to Queensland.
"We haven't had any reported sightings since then," Ms Jacobs said.
"We are unsure whether she's turned around to head south or she's continuing north, until we get some further reports.
"The observations of her movements aren't typical.
"It does seem she's lost some body condition, so she does need to find her food sources.
"We're actually really hopeful that she will turn around and start moving south towards the Great Southern Ocean, which is her primary feeding grounds."
If anyone spots the young while whale they're urged to call ORRCA on 94153333 and report the sighting.
Born in waters around Tonga in August 2024, Siale may already be a seasoned traveller but is believed to be on her own.
She has already shown herself to be an atypical traveller, crossing the Pacific from Tonga.
"At this stage, we don't really know why she [was] traveling north," Ms Jacobs said.
"We are hopeful that she will return south quite quickly, which would be a lot more typical and what we'd be seeing of humpbacks at this time of year.
"We're working collaboratively with a number of scientists and organisations, so we can learn more about her, and we can understand more about her movements and about her as an individual, given that she's so unique."
ORRCA said the images confirmed Siale's true albinism, evidenced by her red eyes, unlike leucitic whales who may have no pigmentation but have dark eyes.
While the whale migration season has all but finished for the season, a young male humpback died after becoming caught in the Coledale shark net.
It was found on October 27 and its body washed up on rocks north of Scarborough Beach the following day.
ORRCA is the Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia.