ABC reported<\/a> 16 sharks were sighted in the area over the weekend. SharkSmart reported a bull shark at Woonona Point and a 3.73-metre tiger shark that was tagged and released from a SMART drumline at Corrimal beach.<\/p>\nLocal spear fisher Darren Bissett said his Friday morning began like any other off the coast at Bellambi.<\/p>\n
Having checked the weather, rip charts and local social media channels for potential hazards, he and his dive buddy were spearfishing a shallow reef.<\/p>\n
Local diver Darren Bissett. Photograph: Darren Bissett<\/p>\n
They were unaware that the whale carcass was being towed just 500 metres away, bringing with it feeding sharks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had no notification, and that was a particularly dangerous situation that we were foisted into through a complete lack of correspondence by the people performing the action,\u201d Bissett told the Guardian.<\/p>\n
The divers were warned about the incoming hazard not by authorities but by a commercial diver who had intercepted radio chatter about the carcass. He abandoned his work and then raced over to warn them after spotting their dive flag.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a smirk under my mask thinking, these guys are pulling my leg,\u201d Bissett said.<\/p>\n
Then he saw the tugboat and the carcass breaching the waves. He said nearby, unaware locals were swimming and surfing at Bellambi rock pool.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was gobsmacked,\u201d he said this week, adding he saw multiple sharks in the water near the carcass at the boat ramp.<\/p>\n
Bissett said maritime authorities didn\u2019t sound alarms or approach his vessel.<\/p>\n
\u201cSwimming when there\u2019s a feeding event happening elevates the risks considerably. You are confronted with species that are very aggressive in feeding scenarios, which was completely avoidable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The carcass at Bellambi as photographed by Darren Bissett. Photograph: Darren Bissett<\/p>\n
Marc Robson, president of the Woonona Boardriders Club, said he discovered the carcass was at Bellambi by calling the council on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Having heard rumours on Thursday evening, he sought clarification from the council and surfing governing bodies but received no formal communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were significant safety concerns, particularly the increased risk of shark activity associated with towing a carcass along the coastline,\u201d Robson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany surfers, swimmers and divers across multiple beaches \u2026 were likely unaware of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club was forced to cancel its first championship event of the year, scheduled for Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmotions have understandably been heightened given the potential safety implications,\u201d he said. Robson said the community\u2019s response has been one of \u201cconcern and confusion\u201d over the lack of communication.<\/p>\n
Finger pointing and safety concerns<\/p>\n
After the operation, there has been intense discussion about who was responsible for warning the public about potential shark activity as the carcass was towed.<\/p>\n
A NPWS spokesperson said that while they managed the removal of the carcass, Wollongong city council, as the local land manager, was responsible for beach closures, signage and public safety warnings, with the support of Surf Life Saving NSW.<\/p>\n
Parks and wildlife said council and life saving staff were engaged from the outset, including on Tuesday 28 April when NPWS first contacted the council to plan the Bellambi retrieval.<\/p>\n
However, the council said that NPWS was the lead agency directing communications. The council said it received an operational timeline from NPWS on Thursday suggesting the whale would not arrive at Bellambi until Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The council claims NPWS told it the timeline was not for further distribution.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for SLSNSW said NPWS initially notified three affected surf clubs that a removal attempt would occur \u201cin the coming days\u201d but no destination was advised.<\/p>\n
NPWS stated it updated Surf Life Saving before 8am on Friday \u2013 once the whale was successfully removed from the rocks at Era beach.<\/p>\n
The council said when it became aware of the \u201cupdated timeframe\u201d on Friday morning it contacted key local representatives to ensure they were aware of potential increased shark activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal Surf Life Saving clubs and council also used social media on Friday morning to advise the community of the increased likelihood of shark activity associated with the NPWS operation.\u201d<\/p>\n
SLSNSW said when it became aware that the carcass was being moved to Bellambi it \u201cimmediately notified Wollongong city council and supported them in the closure of all impacted beaches\u201d.<\/p>\n
It also launched drones for \u201cshark surveillance\u201d.<\/p>\n
But SLS Illawarra was reportedly<\/a> unaware the carcass was on the move until local fishers reported it arriving at Bellambi at about 10.30am on Friday. SLS Illawarra was only emailed by the council at 11am, the ABC reported.<\/p>\n\u2018It was quite distressing\u2019<\/p>\n
Bissett said beyond the immediate danger to water users, \u201cthe whales are also a sacred animal to our Indigenous brothers and sisters\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was quite distressing for a lot of people witnessing it and hearing about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Towing the carcass along the coast \u201cwas a very poor action plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wollongong council acknowledged \u201cthe removal of a deceased whale is a complex and sensitive process\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhales hold significant environmental and cultural importance in Wollongong, and their loss is felt deeply by the community and taken seriously by council,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Wollongong\u2019s lord mayor, Tania Brown, has requested an urgent meeting with the state ministers for the environment and agriculture, and NPWS, to establish protocols for future operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs is standard practice, NPWS will be reviewing the operation with the other parties involved \u2026 to identify any lessons to be learned to improve effectiveness and efficiency,\u201d the parks and wildlife service spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
With whale populations recovering since hunting bans, Whittaker warned that coastal communities would inevitably see more carcasses washing ashore.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese situations must be handled in a more sensitive and culturally appropriate way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fishers, surfers and divers say they should have been warned about the towing of a huge whale carcass…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-650965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}