A man fishing off the coast of Tauranga in the weekend was treated to a rare surprise when he spotted a white dolphin.

The man was fishing near Motiti Island when the white mammal was seen.

'My husband was out fishing near Motiti Island and was lucky enough to capture a go pro video of an almost all white dolphin with a pod of other common dolphins,” says the man's wife when she emailed stills of the video to SunLive.

'He said it looked bright white in real life. It's pretty beautiful.”

According to Coastal-Marine Research Group director Karen Stockin, the dolphin is an anomalously pigmented common dolphin with normally pigmented conspecifics.

"We can't albino as it's not possible to determine this from these photos given the eye colour visible."