CBS News
Rare white killer whale nicknamed “Frosty” spotted off California coast
A group of seafaring tourists saw something unusual while whale-watching off the coast of Southern California this week. It was a white orca, or killer whale, that has become somewhat famous in environmentalist circles up and down the Pacific Coast over the last few years.
The orca, a calf nicknamed “Frosty” because of its unusually pale appearance, was seen most recently near Newport Beach. Newport Landing Whale Watching, the tour company that led the whale-watching excursion, shared a Facebook reel on Monday that showed the creature swimming with a pod of several other orcas. The company said the pod included six or seven killer whales seen “offshore,” which usually means 10 or so miles from land.
Newport Landing Whale Watching / Facebook
Frosty has gained a certain level of celebrity since first being seen near Monterey Bay, in Northern California, in 2019, according to the Pacific Whale Watch Association. At the time, Frosty was just a newborn. The whale has since been sighted as far north as British Columbia.
Found in all of the world’s oceans, orcas are a top marine predator found near coasts and in open seas, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They often have especially long lifespans, with females living between 50 and 90 years and males living between 30 and 60 years, so they don’t generally reach maturity until their pre-teen or teenage years. Experts say Frosty is part of a transient population of orcas known as Bigg’s killer whales, which depart from the behaviors of other orcas that are traditionally part of either “resident” or offshore populations.
Frosty’s lack of the typical black-and-white coloring of most killer whales is “extremely rare,” NOAA has said of orcas with a similar appearance.
The Oceanic Society, a California-based nonprofit organization focused on marine conservation, wrote in 2022 that the orca was one of five or six known killer whales that have leucism, an uncommon condition that causes a partial loss of pigmentation in some animals. That leads to the animal’s skin or coat fading to look pale, white or patchy. In 2020, researchers on a charter boat in Alaska spotted a killer whale with the same condition. At the time, a graduate student on the boat said that only eight leucistic whales had ever been seen anywhere in the world.
Leucism is not the same as albinism, where a genetic mutation prevents the production of melanin, which would give an animal its color. Creatures with albinism are usually, but not always, completely white and can have pink or red eyes. Although experts have primarily described Frosty as leucistic, some have suggested that the whale could actually have Chediak-Higashi Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that also depletes pigmentation and, like leucism, is very rare. Another famously white killer whale, nicknamed Chimo, suffered from Chediak-Higashi Syndrome and died from complications of the condition in the early 1970s. A postmortem ultimately confirmed the diagnosis.
The Trump administration could be a boon for business for private prison companies in the U.S. if the president-elect delivers on his promise to crack down on illegal immigration.
CoreCivic and Geo Group, the two biggest private prison operators in the U.S., both contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house detained, undocumented migrants. Their stocks soared Wednesday following Trump’s election win, with investors betting the companies will see increased profits from a tough-on-immigration administration.
CoreCivic, which closed at $13.50 a share on November 5, is trading at $22 a share, while Geo Group, which closed at $15 a share Tuesday, is currently trading at $23.75.
“Obviously, investors believe there is going to be a significant increase in opportunity for both of these firms under the Trump administration,” Noble Capital Markets analyst Joe Gomes told CBS MoneyWatch.
Geo Group executives acknowledged on the company’s third-quarter earnings call Thursday that it expects the incoming administration to enact stricter border security policies and that the company stands “ready to provide additional resources to help ICE meet future needs.”
CoreCivic executives also said they believe the election result will drive demand for its services.
ICE is biggest customer
During Trump’s first term in office, from 2017-2021, immigration detention expanded at record levels, according to an ACLU report. In 2019, ICE detained an average of over 50,000 people each day. At times, that number exceeded 56,000 — about 50% more than peak levels during the Obama administration, according to the report. During his first term in office, Trump expanded the federal government’s use of private prison companies to detain immigrants.
As of January 2020, 81% of people detained in ICE custody across the U.S. were held in facilities owned or managed by private prison corporations, according to the ACLU report.
In his second term, President-elect Trump promises a radical shift in policy at the U.S.-Mexico border from his predecessor. That includes a pledge to oversee the largest deportation operation in American history, which could bring significantly more business to CoreCivic and Geo Group.
For the first nine months of 2024, ICE accounted for 30% of each company’s revenue.
Both Geo Group and CoreCivic said they currently have excess capacity to accommodate a larger population of detainees. CoreCivic executives noted that they’re taking steps to prepare to activate additional capacity to meet ICE’s needs. That could include reconfiguring facilities to accommodate a bigger intake area, they noted.
“There is room for an uptick in occupancy from a capacity standpoint and both companies expect an ask from the Trump administration for more beds. The question is how much, and we just don’t know right now,” Wedbush Securities analyst Brian Violino told CBS MoneyWatch.
Monitoring
Geo Group also provides monitoring services for ICE under its Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP), a monitoring program using wearable technology that serves as an alternative to detention.
“If there is a finite number of beds and a significant number of people are detained, which Trump is discussing in his plans, there could be an increased usage in this alternative to detention,” Violino said.
Geo Group executives said they have the necessary technology and staffing resources to scale up the contract to more than several million participants, if necessary.
Funding from Congress
The degree to which ICE expands its contracts with the two largest private prison companies depends on how big of an increase in funding Congress authorizes. While Republicans won the Senate majority in Tuesday’s election, it remains to be seen which party will obtain control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“That’s a big part of the story, and if it’s a Republican sweep, it will be easier for Trump to get funding from Congress to support this operation he’s looking to do,” Violino said.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
