The mysterious beast was spotted by stunned tourists aboard a charter boat, on New Year’s Day.

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The footage – taken off the coast of Thailand – shows an all-white creature swimming past the vessel and exploring the glistening waters.

Then – making sure not to disappoint the ecstatic globetrotters – the whale bursts through the ocean’s surface – showing off its striking colour – before diving out of sight.

The mammal is an Omura’s whale, a breed so rare that scientists are still learning key details about it – such as their distribution, population sizes, and possible variations in appearance.

It was accompanied by a second Omara’s whale with asymmetrical black and white markings – more typical with previous descriptions of the breed – as it swam in the Andaman Sea.

Also known as dwarf fin whales, Omara’s are small and streamlined which gives them a snake-like appearance.

Their body is asymmetrically marked and their lower jaw is white on the right side and dark on the left.

They had previously been mistaken for Bryde’s whales as both species look similar and live in tropical seas.

The species can be distinguished as they have a single defined ridge on the front of their head and Bryde’s whales have three.

Omura’s are among the smallest of the rorquals (a group of whales consiting of blue whales, fin whales, sei whales, Bryde’s whale, and minke whales.)

Only the two species of minke whale – which reach 9.75 and 10.7 m in length – are smaller.

The first living Omura’s was seen in the wild in 2015, but this is the only known sighting in Thailand of an albino whale.

The white creature was reported to Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, which launched a search for the unique animal.

After days of searching, officials said they didn’t find it, but had spotted at least four other Omura’s whales in the area. 

They were swimming and feeding near the Phi Phi Islands, Honeymoon Island and Coral Island.

According to experts from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Omura’s whales are the latest mammal species to be identified.

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