{"id":632995,"date":"2026-09-23T01:12:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T01:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/632995\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T01:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T01:12:13","slug":"dead-humpback-whale-tested-for-bird-flu-after-being-towed-off-sunshine-coast-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/632995\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead humpback whale tested for bird flu after being towed off Sunshine Coast beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell us about your experience. <\/p>\n

Authorities have tested a dead whale for bird flu after the mammal floated ashore at a popular beach on the Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n

The 6.7-metre juvenile humpback carcass washed up on the sand between Alexandra Headland and Maroochydore late yesterday afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Authorities have taken samples from the whale to learn the cause of death.\u00a0 (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Council)<\/p>\n

An exclusion zone was set up and the animal was left on the beach overnight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast Council Mayor Rosanna Natoli said authorities managed to remove the whale at high tide, at about 5:30am today.<\/p>\n

“We did need to wait for the high tide to be able to tow it and do that carefully \u2014 also before the animal begins to decompose,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A team on the beach wearing hazmat suits shot a flare with a tow rope to a boat waiting about 100 metres offshore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The boat then connected the rope to its hull, before the people onshore tied the other end of the rope around the whale’s tail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

An exclusion zone was set up on the beach overnight.\u00a0 (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

The carcass will be towed 20 nautical miles, or 37 kilometres, out to sea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cr Natoli said the whale displayed no obvious cause of death and has been tested for avian influenza.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A small humpback whale has been towed from the beach between Alexandra Headland and Maroochydore.\u00a0 (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Council)<\/p>\n

“Samples have been taken to try to work out the cause of death and what has happened to this whale,” she said.<\/p>\n

“This is a majestic animal. It’s very sad when you see this kind of situation.<\/p>\n

“It is school holidays so we want to make sure the area is safe for everyone.”<\/p>\n

Xavier Agius, 13, was among those who gathered \u2013 and held his breath \u2013 to watch the dawn removal operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It stinks. That’s a smell you don’t want to smell,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I just felt sad because it’s not supposed to be there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s sad seeing ocean creatures not where they belong.”<\/p>\n

\"Waves<\/p>\n

The dead whale washed ashore on the Sunshine Coast on Tuesday afternoon. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

Xavier said it was interesting watching the operation unfold.<\/p>\n

“It’s pretty cool to take a photo and experience that, but I don’t want to really see that happen ever again,” he said.<\/p>\n

There were no surfers in the water at the usually popular surf beach on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tell us about your experience. Authorities have tested a dead whale for bird flu after the mammal floated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[268696,268701,268702,83332,25351,268699,268700,263167,22253,268697,61,60,268698,82,268695,263],"class_list":["post-632995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-alexandra-headland-whale","tag-australia-bird-flu","tag-avian-influenza-sunshine-coast","tag-beached-whale","tag-bird-flu","tag-bird-flu-queensland","tag-can-whales-get-bird-flu","tag-dead-whale","tag-humpback-whale","tag-humpback-whale-sunshine-coast","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-maroochydore-whale","tag-science","tag-sunshine-coast-whale","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}