{"id":615062,"date":"2026-09-29T06:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T06:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615062\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T06:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T06:14:11","slug":"whale-carcass-at-city-beach-sparks-shark-tagging-removal-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615062\/","title":{"rendered":"Whale carcass at City Beach sparks shark tagging, removal mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

A festering whale carcass that washed up on one of Perth’s most popular beaches will be removed and taken to landfill tomorrow.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beaches in the Town of Cambridge remain closed after the dead whale washed up at City Beach early yesterday morning, attracting multiple sharks within metres of the shoreline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mayor Gary Mack confirmed contractors would use heavy machinery to undertake the “complex and potentially risky” task of removing the whale carcass tomorrow morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Mack urged people to avoid the area after rangers saw a person sitting on the smelly carcass, which has attracted huge crowds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“That is highly inappropriate, it\u2019s not a toy, it’s not a play thing, it is a dead animal that needs to be disposed of in an appropriate way and as soon as possible,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The decomposing whale carcass remained on the beach this morning. (ABC News: Lucy Murray)<\/p>\n

Town facing huge bill<\/p>\n

In 2014, the state government ended up paying half of the $188,000 bill to remove a whale carcass from Scarborough Beach after a stoush erupted over who should bear the cost<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

It took three days to have that carcass cleaned up and removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve been warned by people that were involved in the Scarborough incident … that it is going to be expensive,” Mr Mack said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“But one thing we do know is that we can’t wait, we’ve got to get that carcass removed as soon as possible and that’s our intent.”<\/p>\n

Mr Mack said the council would ask the state government to contribute to the cost of removing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fisheries Minister Jackie Jarvis said she had not been briefed on the cost, which was a matter for the Town of Cambridge and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA).<\/p>\n

“Generally local governments manage these types of things on beaches, that is part of their responsibility, but I won\u2019t provide further comment,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

More onlookers have been drawn to the whale carcass at City Beach. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

‘Opportunistic tagging opportunity’<\/p>\n

Ms Jarvis confirmed drum lines had been placed in the water in a bid to tag sharks circling the beach, which she described as a “mammoth task”.<\/p>\n

\"WA<\/p>\n

Jackie Jarvis says fisheries officers will make every effort to tag sharks attracted to the area.\u00a0 (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n

“We make use of opportunistic tagging opportunities \u2026 and we’ll tag as many sharks as we can,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It is quite an onerous task, pulling a 3-metre shark up against the boat and essentially doing minor surgery on it,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sharks have been circling near the shore at City Beach. (ABC News: Lucy Murray)<\/p>\n

Choppy conditions and bad weather made it difficult for fisheries officers to catch and kill the shark that fatally mauled swimmer Greg James O’Neill at Sorrento Beach<\/a> earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carcass spotted offshore<\/p>\n

Ms Jarvis was quizzed on why the carcass was not towed out to sea when it was first spotted floating offshore before it washed up, saying that was a matter for the DBCA.<\/p>\n

“My understanding is if the carcass is dragged out further in these type of weather conditions, it increases the chances of the carcass being broken up and washing back onto shore and therefore causing more shark activity,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Authorities will try to tag sharks lured by the whale carcass. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

It could be days before City Beach and Floreat Beach are reopened, with Mr Mack saying that would not happen until every part of the carcass was removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said people should be mindful that oils from the carcass would remain in the water even after it was taken away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A festering whale carcass that washed up on one of Perth’s most popular beaches will be removed and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[302373,302969,111,139,69,48807,302970,302375,147,62249,302972,302971,14861,5013,26010,17967,406],"class_list":["post-615062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-city-beach","tag-city-beach-whale","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-perth-news","tag-perth-sharks","tag-perth-whale-carcass","tag-science","tag-shark-attacks","tag-shark-attacks-wa","tag-shark-warnings-perth","tag-sharks","tag-wa-news","tag-whale","tag-whale-carcass","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615062","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=615062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}