Whale carcass washes up at Palm Beach, New South Wales, Australia

Council

23 Aug 11

by Brenton Cherry

DEAD whale washed up on Palm Beach on Sunday – the second in Pittwater in six months.

                                              Whale washed up at southern end of Palm Beach. Photo by Will Swanton

Pittwater Council lifeguards spotted the 12m sperm whale carcass close to the rockpool, forcing the closure of the beach due to concerns the decomposing remains would attract sharks.

But by this afternoon, the carcass had drifted out to sea, allowing surfers and swimmers to return to the water.

In April, authorities had difficulty removing a 12-tonne sperm whale that had lodged on rocks at Newport.

Pittwater Council’s reserves and recreation manager Les Munn said the latest whale was badly decomposed.

“It has no tail, no head – it’s just a lump of flesh,” he said.

“It was on the nose.”

National Parks and Wildlife Service’s coordinator of marine fauna programs, Geoff Ross, said it was rare to see two sperm whales wash ashore in close proximity in such a short period of time.

“Sperm whales are normally a long way off shore,” he said.

“Generally when a whale dies at sea the predators have a chance to chomp on it and then it sinks to the ocean floor.

“But with these big east coast lows we’ve had, the wind catches it and brings the carcass closer to shore.”

Mr Ross, however, said we could expect to see more whales washing ashore in the future.

“The populations are starting to recover,” he said.

“People see dead whales as some kind of harbinger of ill fortune but they’re actually indicative of a healthy population.”

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