{"id":399640,"date":"2026-04-27T08:53:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T08:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399640\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T08:53:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T08:53:25","slug":"beaches-at-sydneys-royal-national-park-close-after-dead-whale-brings-significant-shark-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399640\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaches at Sydney&#8217;s Royal National Park close after dead whale brings &#8216;significant&#8217; shark activity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Jamie McKinnell, ABC<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPKRMK_d44f2ea2edff2ff6d849851580278db4_avif.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"590\" alt=\"Surf lifesavers noticed the whale carcass on Saturday morning on the southern end of Era Beach.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nSurf lifesavers noticed the whale carcass on Saturday morning on the southern end of Era Beach.<br \/>\nPhoto: Supplied: SLSNSW\n<\/p>\n<p>Several popular beaches in Sydney&#8217;s Royal National Park have been closed due to increased shark activity after a large whale carcass washed up on a rock platform.<\/p>\n<p>Surf lifesavers noticed the whale early on Saturday morning on the southern end of Era Beach when they showed up for patrols.<\/p>\n<p>Garie, Wattamolla, Era and Burning Palms have been closed as a result of the shark activity.<\/p>\n<p>Shark surveillance drones and jet skis have been relocated to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/world\/584693\/the-shark-mitigation-measures-in-place-at-nsw-beaches\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">keep watch over the area<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPKRM6_924dfa950496a4dfba2b97023f0c8ab1_avif.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" alt=\"Shark surveillance drones and jet skis are patrolling the area.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nShark surveillance drones and jet skis are patrolling the area.<br \/>\nPhoto: ABC News\n<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The lifesavers are reporting a significant amount of sharks visibly off the beach and around the rock platform,&#8221; Surf Life Saving NSW (SLSNSW) CEO Stephen Pearce said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our warning is, &#8216;Don&#8217;t go in the water&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t prevent people from going in the water, but knowing just how many sharks are there and the reports of larger white and bull sharks in the water, they&#8217;re not the fish you want to be swimming in the same water with.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Beachgoers are being advised to avoid surfing, swimming, diving or spearfishing.<\/p>\n<p>The species of the whale is unclear.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It looks like it&#8217;s been decaying for a little while out to sea,&#8221; Pearce said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4JPKRLR_5d365a5070d7f41e728898c860134ad4_avif.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"700\" alt=\"Beachgoers are warned to stay out of the water.\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nBeachgoers are warned to stay out of the water.<br \/>\nPhoto: ABC News\n<\/p>\n<p>He said the organisation will now work with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to keep the beaches shut, likely for at least 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;National Parks will have to make arrangements to try and come in and determine what they&#8217;re going to do with the carcass.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think they&#8217;re obviously going to have to remove it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Pearce said SLSNSW chose to issue an alert because of the long weekend, the &#8220;high visitation&#8221; area and the amount of sharks in the water.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; ABC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jamie McKinnell, ABC Surf lifesavers noticed the whale carcass on Saturday morning on the southern end of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45,147,406],"class_list":["post-399640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}