{"id":902403,"date":"2026-09-23T10:26:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902403\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T10:26:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T10:26:27","slug":"sunshine-coast-whale-dead-humpback-tested-for-bird-flu-before-being-towed-out-to-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902403\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunshine Coast whale: Dead humpback tested for bird flu before being towed out to sea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Julius Dennis\" data-testid=\"author-avatar-image\" height=\"64\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/7cd84b0c5d2b0bdf18ae4f2811af3dfbe0a2115dd8e549393f91733dffbf8c9c.png\"  width=\"64\" class=\"sc-9a01536c-0 bdzZhU\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-testid=\"article-datetime\" class=\"sc-5cbbddda-5 hxoHkT\">September 23, 2026 \u2014 9:37am<\/p>\n<p>Save<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-d1b14060-4 JmUoF\">You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n<p>Remove items from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brisbanetimes.com.au\/goodfood\/saved\" class=\"sc-3f16ee48-12 sc-d1b14060-2 jyLmZI fPBBmK\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<p>AAA<\/p>\n<p>A dead whale that washed up on a Sunshine Coast beach has been tested for bird flu before being dragged out to sea.<\/p>\n<p>The 6.7 metre female juvenile humpback died of unknown circumstances, and was seen floating between Point Cartwright and Mudjimba, near Alexandra Headland, about 4pm on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service alerted the local council, and the whale washed up at Alex Beach roughly an hour later.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The whale was dragged out to sea at first light. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/cfccc1bafc1829db64b92cd1e6a2969fc8e86dfe.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 ldCIuB\"\/>The whale was dragged out to sea at first light. Sunshine Cost Council<\/p>\n<p>Council officers worked overnight to secure an exclusion zone around the carcass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur team collected samples and measurements which they will submit to the authorities for research purposes along with a strandings report,\u201d a Sunshine Coast Council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>A GPS tracker was attached to the whale before was dragged about 40 kilometres out to sea at first light, with council officers ready to intervene should it start to drift towards the shore again.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The animal\u2019s cause of death is unknown. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/57b65ba05257421b73e9d17d9e50f44f75b230de.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 bNAuyX\"\/>The animal\u2019s cause of death is unknown. Sunshine Cost Council<\/p>\n<p>\u201cData collected will support the future management of carcasses,\u201d the council spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>Sunshine Coast mayor Rosanna Natoli said it was \u201cextremely sad to see such a majestic animal like this\u201d, and thanked locals for keeping their distance.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Officers took the animal\u2019s measurements and conducted tests overnight. \" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6c6550b45d70a6ae4d00fefb1097f504ad645ca8.jpeg\"  class=\"sc-d34e428-1 bNAuyX\"\/>Officers took the animal\u2019s measurements and conducted tests overnight. Sunshine Cost Council<\/p>\n<p>Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. <a class=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brisbanetimes.com.au\/newsletter-signup?newsletter=am&amp;utm_source=EditorialArticle&amp;utm_medium=ArticleText&amp;utm_campaign=Newsletters\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Save<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-d1b14060-4 JmUoF\">You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n<p>Remove items from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brisbanetimes.com.au\/goodfood\/saved\" class=\"sc-3f16ee48-12 sc-d1b14060-2 jyLmZI fPBBmK\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n<p>From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 23, 2026 \u2014 9:37am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-902403","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\/902403","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=902403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}