{"id":936664,"date":"2026-10-22T08:02:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T08:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936664\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T08:02:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T08:02:18","slug":"maroubra-coogee-beaches-closed-after-whale-carcass-discovered-close-to-shore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/936664\/","title":{"rendered":"Maroubra, Coogee beaches closed after whale carcass discovered close to shore"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated October 22, 2026 \u2014 2:19pm,first published October 22, 2026 \u2014 9:16am<\/p>\n

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Authorities are hoping high tide removes a washed-up whale carcass that has closed two Sydney beaches and triggered warnings of increased shark activity in the eastern suburbs.<\/p>\n

Lifeguards reported the decomposing whale floating in Lurline Bay, a rocky enclave between Coogee and Maroubra, just before 8am on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"AA whale carcass washed up in Lurline Bay in South Coogee. Rope caught around one of the pectoral fins is related to a previous attempt to haul the carcass out to sea.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

The council has closed Maroubra and Coogee beaches until further notice and has restricted access to the surrounding rock shelf.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that the community is kept as safe as possible, we have cordoned off the area to leave this creature in peace,\u201d said Randwick Mayor Dr Clare Willington.<\/p>\n

\u201cOccasionally, a carcass \u2026 can attract the interest of predators in the water, particularly sharks,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are hoping that the community will be respectful of those closures and understand that we will be reopening the beaches as soon as we feel it is reasonable and safe to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willington thanked the Gamay Rangers, the NSW Department of Primary Industries and national parks staff for managing the \u201csad and unusual\u201d situation while being culturally respectful.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whale is an important totem animal to the local Bidjigal people,\u201d Willington said.<\/p>\n

Senior Gamay ranger Robert Cooley said the location and conditions surrounding the carcass were a challenge, with swell and north-easterly wind pushing the whale onto the rocks and no easy way to get machinery into the bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur preference is to let nature take its course,\u201d Cooley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe option that has been used in recent years is to take [whale carcasses] to landfill, which causes distress to our community. So we want to avoid a situation like that where possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OnlookersOnlookers gather after a whale carcass washed up in Lurline Bay in South Coogee.Audrey Richardson\"TheThe humpback is believed to have died some time ago.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

The whale appears to be an adult or subadult humpback, and its body is too rotten to take a sample for bird flu testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state of decomposition is too advanced to be able to do testing that is reliable, but we have to regard all dead animals as potentially infected with H5N1,\u201d Willington said. \u201cSo we would strongly advise the community to keep a very good distance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whale has rope around one of the pectoral fins, which Cooley said related to an attempt to haul the carcass further out to sea off the northern beaches on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"RandwickRandwick mayor Clare Willington, left, and Robert Cooley, of the Gamay Rangers, at Lurline Bay on Thursday.Audrey Richardson\"TheThe whale\u2019s body is too decomposed for reliable testing, authorities said.Audrey Richardson<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like it could have been dead for a while and washed in,\u201d whale scientist Dr Vanessa Pirotta said. \u201cI would strongly advise against swimming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The washed-up carcass coincides with the likely return of bull sharks to Sydney\u2019s waters.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Humpback<\/a><\/p>\n

The sharks migrate north to Queensland during the cooler months and swim back towards Sydney when coastal temperatures reach 19 or 20 degrees.<\/p>\n

The sharks prefer temperatures of 22 degrees, and peak in activity during January and February. However, research has shown the first sharks are arriving earlier in October each year<\/a> \u2013 and staying around Sydney about a fortnight longer than they used to \u2013 as water temperatures climb under climate change.<\/p>\n

In April, a 25-tonne sperm whale washed up near Era Beach and forced the closure of all beaches in the Royal National Park due to the risk posed by scavenging sharks.<\/p>\n

An estimated 50,000 humpbacks are migrating south to the Antarctic<\/a> after travelling to warm tropical waters near the Great Barrier Reef to breed and give birth.<\/p>\n

Once back in polar waters the whales will gorge on krill, building up blubber over summer to prepare for their next hemisphere-spanning migration in winter. Coles and Woolworths recently stopped selling krill oil supplements amid a global campaign drawing attention to the industry\u2019s effect on wildlife including whales<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Humpbacks were hunted to near-extinction but have staged a spectacular recovery since whaling stopped in the 1960s, increasing their population by 10 per cent each year.<\/p>\n

Get to the heart of what\u2019s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Close\"AngusAngus Dalton<\/a> is the science reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated October 22, 2026 \u2014 2:19pm,first published October 22, 2026 \u2014 9:16am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-936664","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\/936664","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=936664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}