{"id":9872,"date":"2025-07-21T03:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/9872\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T03:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:05:11","slug":"noosa-fisherman-captures-underwater-image-of-possible-crocodile-sighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/9872\/","title":{"rendered":"Noosa fisherman captures underwater image of possible crocodile sighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fisherman on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast believes he has captured a picture of a crocodile on his underwater equipment, despite the area being 300 kilometres out of the reptile’s usual habitat.<\/p>\n

Long-time Noosa fisherman James Graham shared the photo of the crocodile-shaped silhouette from the fish sounder on his boat in the Noosa River on Sunday.<\/p>\n

“I saw something that looked a lot like a crocodile to me,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been fishing all of my life, and I commit myself to the best fishing equipment on the boat.<\/p>\n

“So when I was driving along at Noosa, just throwing a line in, something came across the screen that just looked like it belonged many hundreds of kilometres north.”<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

James Graham has been fishing all his life, and suspects this silhouetted object is a crocodile. (Supplied: James Graham)<\/p>\n

Crocodile killed by rangers<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities spent a week trying to capture the animal after it was seen in the Maryborough area, about 200 kilometres away from its usual habitat.<\/p>\n

The Department of Environment confirmed it was aware of the reports and was investigating, but noted Gladstone’s Boyne River, about 300km north of Noosa, was “commonly considered the southern boundary of typical crocodile habitat”.<\/p>\n

However, earlier this month a crocodile was euthanased by rangers after being found in the Mary River, about 50km inland from Noosa.<\/p>\n

Rangers were also searching for a crocodile earlier in the year<\/a> when one of the ancient animals was spotted at Inskip Point, about 60km north of Noosa.<\/p>\n

It was never caught.<\/p>\n

Noosa croc ‘possible’<\/p>\n

Professor Craig Franklin from the University of Queensland studies crocodile behaviour.<\/p>\n

He said a sighting at Noosa would not be a surprise.<\/p>\n

“It’s possible,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We know from historical records that crocodiles occurred even in the Brisbane River and Logan River in the late 1800s, early 1900s.<\/p>\n

“It’s not out of the question that there’s a crocodile in Noosa.”<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Steve Irwin and Craig Franklin working on a crocodile in Far North\u00a0Queensland in 2006. (Supplied: Craig Franklin)<\/p>\n

Professor Franklin said while crocodiles usually remained further north, that often related to their breeding habits but “we get the occasional straggler that moves further south”.<\/p>\n

When one does end up too far south, it was usually due to larger males in the river system that may have forced them out, but they will soon make their way back north.<\/p>\n

“Our research has shown they can swim 60 kilometres in a day (and) they can use the coastline like a highway to go from one river system to the next.”<\/p>\n

“So if left alone, it’s most likely going to return to where it came from further north.”<\/p>\n

\"University<\/p>\n

Craig Franklin says it is “possible” that a crocodile could travel as far south as Noosa and beyond. (ABC News: Paul Adams)<\/p>\n

Professor Franklin said there was no need for the public to worry about the possibility of a crocodile in Noosa waters until rangers can confirm whether or not the sighting is credible.<\/p>\n

“They’ll be going out at night-time looking for eye-shine for the crocodile, if it indeed is there in Noosa.”<\/p>\n

Croc ‘very clear’ on screen<\/p>\n

Mr Graham said he had heard some discussion on social media earlier that day of a crocodile being spotted and immediately doubted it.<\/p>\n

“I thought, ‘In the middle of winter, in the middle of Noosa? That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard,'” he said.<\/p>\n

But the figure spotted on his equipment changed his mind.<\/p>\n

“It’s very, very clear,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Rangers failed to locate a crocodile spotted off Bundaberg and Inskip Point earlier this year. (Supplied: Jasmine Van Den Bos)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fisherman on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast believes he has captured a picture of a crocodile on his underwater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,11631,11630,11634,11633,11635,44,11632,1113],"class_list":["post-9872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-croc","tag-crocodile","tag-fish-sounder","tag-fisherman","tag-james-graham","tag-news","tag-noosa","tag-sighting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872","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=9872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}