- EXCLUSIVE | SURFER FINDS LARGE SHARK-RAVAGED WHALE: Features

EXCLUSIVE | SURFER FINDS LARGE SHARK-RAVAGED WHALE [23.09.2010]Other

beached whale, sandon point, shark attack, surf

Photo: http://bretwalker.com/olsite/ Grim discovery: Bret Walker surveys the damage

NSW SURFER FINDS LARGE SHARK-RAVAGED WHALE

EXCLUSIVE | Sandon Point, Illawarra, NSW - Surfer Bret Walker came face-to-face with a rather confronting sight this morning as he set out for a wave at Sandon Point on the NSW South Coast. The shark-ravaged carcass of a ten-metre juvenile Humpback lay beached on the rocks just metres from the break.

The massive marine mammal looked relatively unscathed as Walker approached the scene wetsuit-clad with surfboard under arm. It was only as he drew closer that his discovery become evermore gruesome.

The upturned humpback was missing its tail and showed extensive signs of one or many vicious shark attacks.

Walker: “It’s so random – it’s right on the rocks right where you jump off to surf. Hope there are no White Sharks hanging around.” Walker went on to describe the eerie sight of scores of very large bite marks around where the tail had been torn away. (see image second-bottom)

There's no doubt the flesh and whale-matter reportedly clouding the water off Sandon Point could very likely lure hungry sharks to the area - but it's not enough to keep some from the water.

Remarkably Walker chose to have his surf regardless. I put it to him that the conditions at the popular right-hand point-break must have been particularly good at the time. "It was ok," replayed a casual Walker. "My surfboard was pretty slippery (due to whale-matter in the water) ..I just tried not to swallow any water."

Upon finishing his surf unscathed, Walker revealed to mesurf: “Cops are down here now putting up signs saying stay out of the water because of sharks.” (see bottom image)

Walker: "There are big crowds of people ..a lot of locals are surprised to see that the whale got washed right onto the end of the point and not onto one of the beaches either side."

"People were touching it, I saw two people slip and fall into the stomach that had come out of the mouth and another kid fall in and go underwater in a disgusting rock pool, he was pretty rattled ..there is quite a bit of blood filling the tide-pools and running off the ledge back into the ocean."

"It smells bad, I hope the wind stays offshore for the locals."

It's a sad case of déjà vu for Walker: "This is the second whale I've seen fatally beached in the past few years - we also had a four-metre juvenile Sperm Whale wash up near to where I live. It's a terrible thing to witness another death to a vulnerable species."

Wendy McFarlane from the whale conservation group ORCCA, has warned surfers the area should be avoided at all costs.

The decaying animal should be more than enough bait for a decent number of hungry sharks - so vast is its size, initial sightings were mistakenly reporting an upturned boat-hull. It is estimated the whale could weigh up to 20 tonnes (even without its tail).

- micholas

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...shark vs croc

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