{"id":910017,"date":"2026-09-29T17:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910017\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:06:15","slug":"expert-warns-dead-whale-scent-could-linger-around-city-beach-for-weeks-as-carcass-removal-set-to-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910017\/","title":{"rendered":"Expert warns dead whale scent could linger around City Beach for weeks as carcass removal set to begin"},"content":{"rendered":"

A shark expert has warned the \u201cjuices\u201d of a 31-tonne whale carcass will remain in the waters around South City Beach for at least a week even after the animal has been removed, meaning sharks will be drawn to the area for a prolonged period of time.<\/p>\n

The giant whale that washed up Monday morning lured a number of great white sharks into the shallows on Tuesday as hoards of onlookers watched on from the beach. A five metre great white was less than 20m away from the shoreline, while two other white sharks were caught and tagged at nearby Floreat Beach \u2014 including one measuring nearly 4m.<\/p>\n

As the Town of Cambridge prepares to try to remove the whale remains on Wednesday morning, Macquarie University Fish Lab head Culum Brown said sharks were likely to hang around the area for at least a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe juices and the smell from that carcass will be seeping into the sand, leaching through into the sand and it\u2019ll take several tide flows depending on how high up on the beach it ends up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assume they\u2019ll tow it away at some point and throw it in a landfill, but it\u2019ll take several tides to flush that fully out of the sand. Sharks have an exquisite capacity for smell, so I imagine they will be still be attracted to that location for quite some time yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SharksCamera IconSharks have been captured circling the whale carcuss close to shore. Credit: Tom Kavanagh\/Tom Kavanagh<\/p>\n

Mr Brown said swimmers should opt for other beaches while the scent of the whale lingered. He also urged authorities to keep a very close eye on the waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was in charge, I\u2019d probably have a drone up if you\u2019re going to have people in the area,\u201d he said. \u201cI would have a drone up making sure that they don\u2019t go in the water and that the sharks do eventually swim off, but it may take some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really wanted to, you could get a dredge in there and dredge it away, but that\u2019s a fair bit of effort for something that the tide and time will take care of on its own. You\u2019ve just got to keep the people out of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

UWA Oceans Institute adjunct research fellow Ben D\u2019Antonio said the whale carcass was an attractive meal for sharks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s basically a pot of gold for a shark, this kind of mass of food that\u2019s incredibly rich in lipids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor these animals (sharks), their eyes pop out of their heads when they go, \u2018wow, so much food, I\u2019m going to sit here and chew it all day\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a shark, the ocean is vast and it can be really difficult to find food so when there is a whale that\u2019s unfortunately passed away, they float at the surface and they create a buffet for the sharks around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Drum lines deliberately set nearby managed to catch two white sharks on Tuesday in the surrounding waters, measuring 3.1 metres and 3.7 metres.<\/p>\n

Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis said officials were trying to make the most of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll target and tag as many sharks as we can, it\u2019s important to remember when we tag sharks this isn\u2019t just a tag on the dorsal fin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"ACamera IconA 3.7m white shark was tagged and released off Floreat Groyne on Tuesday. Credit: Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development\/Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shark is caught, it is actually pulled up alongside the boat, it is actually turned over, an internal tag is actually surgically inserted, so each shark actually has sort of minor surgery on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a mammoth task, they do a fantastic job and the idea of these opportunistic drum lines is to tag as many sharks as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr D\u2019Antonio said elevated shark activity was to be expected, and people should be cautious not to interact with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are feeding and they\u2019re a wild animal, so it\u2019s not wise to interact with animals when they\u2019re feeding, just like when you might have a dog gnawing on a bone, you wouldn\u2019t tell a child to go pet the dog because the dog\u2019s behaviour is unpredictable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same with a shark, they are wild animals and at any time it\u2019s not wise to interact with wild animals because their behaviour is unpredictable, but certainly when there is food around.\u201d<\/p>\n

All beaches in the local government area remained closed on Tuesday evening, with an exclusion zone spanning along South City Beach for an excavator and workers to begin the massive task of removing the whale on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n

But a Town of Cambridge spokesperson said existing rules had already been broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, some people have breached the existing barriers, these controls are in place for public and worker safety, people must not enter the exclusion zone, and anyone who disregards the barriers or lawful directions may be issued with an infringement,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Cambridge mayor Gary Mack said that drones capturing footage of the event had interrupted operations and asked the public to cease filming from above.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we don\u2019t want is drones to be flying over the area because that is will potentially interfere with helicopters and also the boats that are out there to assist with us,\u201d Mr Mack said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very unhelpful for us, it poses a risk to helicopters, some of which are Surf Life Saving assets. It poses a risk to boats out there that are trying to help us. So we prefer people wouldn\u2019t fly drones in this area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CityCamera IconCity Beach will remain closed for the foreseeable future while authorities deal with the carcuss. Credit: 7NEWS\/7NEWS<\/p>\n

Ms Jarvis said the beaches would not open for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as there\u2019s shark activity, the beach will remain closed,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s an abundance of caution and that\u2019s normal practice, regardless of whether there\u2019s a whale carcass or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s significant shark activity, if there\u2019s shark spotted, local government work closely with DPIRD to to make sure the beaches remain closed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some onlookers who came to witness the sharks so close to shore appeared unfazed by the potential risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll be in pretty soon,\u201d Analeigh Brown said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019d be too bothered by it, but we don\u2019t go out very far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can see how most people will probably (wait), there\u2019s a huge fear of sharks all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

But others were more cautious, such as Chris Payne who has been more worried of sharks since swimmer Greg O\u2019Neill was taken at Sorrento beach less than two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, especially with that gentleman taken from Sorrento, that hit home a bit more than the other ones, as it was 15 meters out, that\u2019s where everyone swims,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something to think about for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shark expert has warned the \u201cjuices\u201d of a 31-tonne whale carcass will remain in the waters around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,44,128,1042,45,338],"class_list":["post-910017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-science","tag-sharks","tag-wa-news","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910017","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=910017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}