Australia’s favourite whale, Migaloo the albino - PHOTO+VIDEO

The first pictures of one of the world's rarest sea creatures, Migaloo the white humpback whale, have been taken of the magnificent animal beginning his yearly migration north along Australia's eastern seaboard.

The all-white Migaloo who shares his distinguishable albino appearance with just one other white whale in the world, a Norwegian, was sighted for the first time this year by a member of the public just off the coast of Green Cape in southern NSW on Tuesday.He was then spotted several times again on Thursday, with camera crews getting magnificent views of the 35-year-old off the coast of Sydney. He was snapped and filmed breaching in waters off Botany Bay, Cronulla and Bondi as Australia's much-loved white whale continued his three-month migratory trip from Antarctica to North Queensland and back.It is the 23rd consecutive year Migaloo has been spotted on the eastern seaboard, his first being in 1991 when he was sighted by marine biologist Dan Burns off the coast off Byron Bay. By Friday he will have made his way north of Newcastle, before reaching Queensland at the end of the month.He is being joined by others from the Australian East Coast Humpback whale population, leaving the cool waters of the Antarctic behind in search of Queensland's tropical warm paradise. Photographer Jonas Liebschner was on scene to snap Migaloo during his first movements through Sydney.  Mr Leibschner was tipped off by whale station volunteers at Botany Bay that Migaloo and a pod of other humpbacks were swimming a few hundred metres off shore in what's known as a 'competition pod.''They try to swim as fast as they can and jostle for the dominant position, zig-zagging underwater,' he told Daily Mail Australia.Usually restricted to a minimum of 150 metres from Migaloo, Mr Liebschner and his team from Whale Watching Sydney got closer than they anticipated because of the pods erratic underwater behaviour. He said his crew were forced to the boat's engine off and idle near the whales which surfaced closer to the boat than expected.Australian laws exist whereby planes and sea craft are prohibited from entering a certain zone when photographing or filming Migaloo. Founder of the White Whale Research Centre Oskar Peterson, who has been tracking the albino's movements since he was first spotted in the early 90s, told Daily Mail Australia why.Mr Peterson, who also runs a blog dedicated purely to the 'fascinating' sea creature, said Migaloo survived a run-in with a trimaran or outrigger boat which left him with significant black scarring on his lower back. The close shave meant tougher laws were brought in to protect the rare animal who has a life expectancy of 80.'Planes have to stay at least 2000 feet from him and 500 feet if you are travelling in a boat,' Mr Peterson said.Mr Peterson also took to twitter on Thursday afternoon to spread the good news that Migaloo was in Sydney. 'Attention Sydney whale watchers. Migaloo was just sighted off Cronulla 30 minutes ago, heading north towards Bondi, enjoy!'The researcher runs his pet, not-for-profit blog full of facts, photos and other tidbits about Australia's much-loved sea creature. The site, migaloo.com.au, is used predominantly as an education tool for school children.'I've had quite a lot of money offered for the website, but I use it as an educational site mainly for school kids who send me plenty of emails at this time of year.'As well as receiving countless school children's emails, Mr Peterson is also inundated with great images and updates of Migaloo's three-month round journey from Antarctica and back between late June and September.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.az