{"id":65889,"date":"2025-08-13T06:23:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/65889\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T06:23:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:23:09","slug":"great-white-shark-found-with-missing-jaws-prompts-black-market-trade-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/65889\/","title":{"rendered":"Great white shark found with missing jaws prompts black market trade concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mutilated great white shark found washed up near Port Lincoln on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula was likely illegally caught for the black market trade, authorities say.<\/p>\n

The 5-metre shark was found on a Louth Bay beach with its jaws missing and its stomach cut open.<\/p>\n

Department of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia (PIRSA) director of operations with fisheries and aquaculture Matt Read said the shark was found “in a rather grim state”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Parts of the shark have been collected by PIRSA for its investigation. (Supplied: Peta Gynell Turkmen)<\/p>\n

“It had actually been cut up, or at least mutilated in the respects that its jaw had been removed from its carcass,” Mr Read said.<\/p>\n

“It also had its stomach cut open, presumably to sink the animal when it had been initially taken.”<\/p>\n

Port Lincoln marine scientist Kirsten Rough, who walks her dogs at Louth Bay beach, photographed the shark carcass on Sunday.<\/p>\n

She said there was a trail of washed-up offal that could have been the shark’s liver.<\/p>\n

Also near the shark carcass were the remains of two seals and a tuna head, which she suspected had come from the shark’s stomach.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A fur seal carcass and a southern bluefin tuna were also found. (Supplied: Kirsten Rough)<\/p>\n

“There was a couple of chunks of a lumpy, gooey brown and green substance before we saw the back half of a seal, just its two back flippers,” Ms Rough said.<\/p>\n

“The last thing we came across was what was left of the shark.”<\/p>\n

Ms Rough did not think the shark’s death was a result of the toxic algal bloom causing dead marine life to wash up<\/a> at beaches across Adelaide and the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas.<\/p>\n

“I thought that someone had probably caught it,” Ms Rough said.<\/p>\n

“You do feel a bit sad because they are protected, and killing things for their jaws doesn’t sit real well with me.”\"A<\/p>\n

Ms Rough says it appears the shark was caught and killed. (Supplied: Calypso Star Charters)<\/p>\n

PIRSA was alerted to the carcass on Friday.<\/p>\n

It said the fur seal carcass and remains of a southern bluefin tuna found near the dead great white could have been used as bait.<\/p>\n

Black market trade concerns<\/p>\n

Mr Read said great white shark jaws were sought-after black market items due to the animal’s protected status.<\/p>\n

Due to the large size of this particular shark, he said its jaws would be very valuable.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The jaws of large predators are valuable now that their hunting is largely prohibited. (ABC Radio Sydney: Amanda Hoh)<\/p>\n

“That’s certainly what we fear. The size of this shark is very unusual,” Mr Read said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately we do think this could be a case of being taken for sale.”<\/p>\n

Wildlife trade expert and Flinders University chair of forensic DNA technology Adrian Linacre said the grizzly nature of the shark’s death was “bizarre and worrying”.<\/p>\n

“Sharks are not often taken for the wildlife trade \u2014 except for fins or parts of their body for trophies that could be sold on the black market,” Dr Linacre said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Adrian Linacre says people underestimate the size of the illegal animal trade in Australia. (Supplied: Adrian Linacre)<\/p>\n

“It’s strange that in this case the carcass has been found. Someone has taken this and either not thought about removing the whole carcass, or maybe they got disturbed.”<\/p>\n

Dr Linacre said people underestimated just how big the illegal animal trade was in Australia.<\/p>\n

“The vast majority, as far as we’re really interested in, is things which leave the country where often the market is bigger than it is here,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The chance of [poachers] being caught is minimal \u2026 and yet the reward can be highly lucrative.”High price to pay<\/p>\n

The penalties for illegally fishing a great white shark are severe.<\/p>\n

Mr Read said the first offence for an individual could be up to $20,000.<\/p>\n

“It can certainly range all the way up to $100,000 and two years’ imprisonment,” Mr Read said.<\/p>\n

\"Jaws<\/p>\n

Great white shark jaws are sought-after black market items. (ABC Radio Sydney: Amanda Hoh)<\/p>\n

Parts of the shark have been taken as evidence by PIRSA to assist their investigation and will be stored in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

“It might give us some timelines with regards to when we need to start looking at different areas of the waterways nearby,” Mr Read said.<\/p>\n

He encouraged anyone with information to call PIRSA’s illegal fishing hotline FishWatch on 1800 065 522.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mutilated great white shark found washed up near Port Lincoln on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula was likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[42005,42010,42003,49,48,11592,42009,42006,42004,42007,66,42008,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-65889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-are-sharks-protected","9":"tag-australia-protected-species","10":"tag-black-market","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-great-white-shark","14":"tag-illegal-animal-trade-australia","15":"tag-is-it-illegal-to-fish-sharks","16":"tag-mutilated-great-white-shark","17":"tag-penalties-for-killing-sharks","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-sharks-illegal-animal-trade","20":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}