A rare, completely white common dolphin has been photographed in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.

Charles Redwood, of Penzance Bay, took photos of the common dolphin in Tennyson Inlet after spotting it from his boat. Mr Redwood said during six years of boating in the area he had never seen a completely white dolphin.The Department of Conservation is warning boaties to be careful around dolphins as there has been an unusually large influx of bottlenose, dusky and some common dolphins in the Sounds. Bad weather may have forced dolphins further into the Sounds than usual.

Massey University coastal marine research group marine ecology lecturer Dr Karen Stockin did a study on anomalously pigmented common dolphins dolphins coloured differently from the norm in 2005 and said the last all-white common dolphin she had on file was off Cape Brett in the Bay of Islands in 1978. It's not known whether the Cape Brett dolphin or the Marlborough Sounds dolphin was albino, as albino characteristics such as pink eyes had not been observed.

Common dolphins are not often in the inner Sounds and usually frequent Cook Strait, bottlenose dolphins have also been in the Sounds since February, which is unusual, though its expected they will disappear once commercial scalloping starts.

image (c) C Redwood