A 10-metre-long humpback whale
carcass has washed up on a West Australian beach and authorities are
investigating how to remove it.
At the weekend, a man climbed on top of the carcass as it floated off the WA coast
surrounded by sharks.
A one-kilometre exclusion zone
around the whale has been implemented and Brighton, Scarborough and South Trigg
beaches are closed until further notice.
City of Stirling beach services
coordinator John Snook told 720 ABC Perth council staff were on site and
attempting to use heavy machinery to remove the carcass.
"We are trying to pull it up
onto dry sand [before] loading it onto a flatbed truck," Mr Snook said.
"Our intention is to keep the
carcass as intact as possible and we are fairly confident that we can do that.
"What we don't want is bits of
the whale breaking off, rubbishing up the beach and creating a bigger problem
for us."
Mr Snook said an oil slick created
by the dead whale in the surrounding water on Sunday appears to have dispersed.
"It's our intention to try and
clear this up as quickly as possible," he said.
Sharks off
Scarborough this morning
Sharks have been spotted in the area
this morning.
Surf Life Saving WA tweeted that
three sharks had been seen about 15 metres off Scarborough beach, all between
two and three metres long.
On Sunday, members of No Shark Cull
WA went out in a boat after hearing reports of the whale and used a camera
mounted on a pole to take photos of sharks attacking the carcass.
"We used cameras on two-to three-metre
poles," said group member Simon.
"We just hung around the dead
whale and sharks came up to us.
"We saw tiger sharks and two
great whites. One was about four metres, another 3.5 [metres].
"We also saw juvenile sharks.
They were coming up to the boat and checking us out. It’s the first time I have
ever seen sharks in the wild."
In a tweet on Sunday, Surf Life
Saving WA said several tiger sharks and a white shark were spotted feeding on
the whale carcass about 1:30pm (AWST).
It is believed the man who climbed
on top of the carcass on Saturday dived off his boat and climbed onto the shark
carcass between Fremantle and Rottnest Island.
The man has since told the media
that he did not see the sharks and he regrets climbing onto the whale.
The Department of Fisheries said the
man's behaviour was risky and irresponsible.
