Sydney blue whale: Rare sighting was 'possibly third in 100 years'

               

A blue whale has been spotted off the coast of Sydney in Australia for possibly only the third time in almost 100 years, wildlife authorities say.

The whale was seen last month in waters near the beachside suburb of Maroubra in New South Wales.The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) confirmed the extremely rare sighting on Friday.Blue whales  the largest animals on Earth - are rarely seen so close to the shore, it said.The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet yet despite its size it could have easily slipped by Sydney's coast unnoticed, Andrew Marshall of the NPWS said in a news release.Mr Marshall said the sea creature may have been more than 25m (82ft) in length and weighed more than 100 tonnes (100,000kg).Yet despite their size, blue whales are largely 'invisible even to the most avid whale watchers, Mr Marshall said.They are not often seen because they tend to live very far out to sea, their populations are widely dispersed and we have very limited data on its migration and critical habitat, he said.The rarity of the sighting was not lost on one photographer, who managed to take pictures of the whale as it swam along the coast near Maroubra.