Rare albino turtle spotted on Australian coast

The tiny creature nicknamed "Alby" was discovered on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

A rare albino turtle hatchling has been spotted on an Australian beach by the Noosa Community Biosphere Assocation, seen above in a video uploaded to Facebook.

Wildlife volunteers discovered the tiny creature whilst surveying a green turtle nest of 122 hatchlings on Castaways Beach, Queensland.

"It was very chipper and just took off into the water as happy as can be," one of the volunteers, Linda Warneminde, told reporters on the scene. "He wasn't sick, just white".

Its thought that just one in 1,000 green turtle hatchlings can live to maturity. And for an albino turtle, lacking its species natural camouflage, the chances could be even lower.

However it seems Alby got off to a good start as Ms Walton explained to the BBC, "I just hope he survives out in the big sea. He was very fast, very keen to get in the water."

According to an expert quoted by Australian ABC, albino hatchlings occur at a rate of just one in hundreds of thousands.