{"id":751860,"date":"2026-06-22T00:59:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751860\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T00:59:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:59:15","slug":"bells-beach-closes-concerns-after-whale-carcass-washes-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/751860\/","title":{"rendered":"Bells Beach closes: Concerns after whale carcass washes up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Victorian authorities are urging people to avoid the famous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/bells-beach-6v0\" class=\"sc-cqkqYi dZDrvo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bells Beach <\/a>after the discovery of a whale carcass washed up there on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Officials are concerned the remains of the whale may attract <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nine.com.au\/topic\/sharks-5tm\" class=\"sc-cqkqYi dZDrvo\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sharks<\/a> to the iconic surfing beach and nearby Winkipop to feed on the carcass.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c417aae85c4cceb2d17ee864eb64f0fbb85f10d69038381d3a3b1373d0e8204a.jpeg\"  width=\"100%\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_0b53bae146db0b62 _7475dd3391ee1518\" style=\"--text-color:var(--color-text-secondary)\">The famous Bells Beach in Victoria has been closed due to the discovery of a whale carcass that may attract sharks to the seas.\u00a0iStock<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDue to a whale carcass there could be an increase in shark activity at Bells Beach and Winkipop,\u201d Vic Emergency wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA whale carcass can attract sharks to the area and mean they are closer to the shore than normal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile it is not uncommon for sharks to be present off the Victorian coast, you should exercise additional caution in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>People are being warned to avoid the area and stay out the sea.<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action &#8211; Barwon South West region said it was working with local residents and the traditional owners to remove the carcass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe area has been closed for public safety reasons until the completion of the operation,\u201d it said in a Facebook post. <\/p>\n<p>Bells Beach, on Victoria\u2019s Great Ocean Road, is one of Australia\u2019s most famous surfing destinations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victorian authorities are urging people to avoid the famous Bells Beach after the discovery of a whale carcass&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":751861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-751860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751860","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=751860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}