Dead whale draws big weekend crowds to Warrnambool, Australia

PETER COLLINS

23 Jul, 2012 04:00 AM

A ROTTING dead whale on Warrnambool’s outskirts has drawn thousands of tourists keen to get a close-up look at the 40-tonne ocean giant.

Following The Standard’s controversial picture story last week of young men handling the carcass and subsequent national media coverage it has became a big drawcard.

The dead whale near Thunder Point attracted big crowds over the weekend.

More than 2000 people trekked from Thunder Point car park to Shelly Beach to see the carcass on the weekend.

Department of Sustainability and Environment officers were kept busy handing out information brochures and answering questions about the sub-adult humpback which washed up on rocks earlier this month.

It is expected to remain stuck on the ledge for several more weeks as it decomposes and is washed into the sea.

Wildlife authorities hope to eventually retrieve some of the skeleton. The 11-metre-long whale was believed to be up to 10 years old.

Although regulations advise there must be a 300-metre exclusion zone around a dead whale, the department has allowed people to view from a clifftop platform only about 20 metres away.

“It’s safe viewing from the ledge,” DSE senior wildlife officer Jim O’Brien told The Standard.

“There are serious health risks if people handle the carcass.

“We had people from Melbourne, Horsham and many other places who wanted to see a whale out of the water.

“The most common queries are, how did it die and what are we going to do with it.

“How it died is unknown. There are a lot of shark predation marks — these could have been before or after it died.

“The carcass is inaccessible by sea or land to drag away so we are letting nature take its course.

“At some stage the gases inside will explode. It will be smelly for quite a while.”

Warrnambool tourism services manager Peter Abbott said it had been the most popular recent topic on the city’s Facebook page.

“It seems any whale is a good whale for tourism.”

standard.net.au

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