Caution reminder over rotting whale carcass at Peaceful Bay

10 November 2014

The Department of Fisheries is advising water users in the Peaceful Bay area to continue to exercise extra caution, following the recent discovery of a whale carcass within the bay, which is approximately half way between Denmark and Walpole.

This carcass has been there for some weeks and the Department of Parks and Wildlife issued a warning about it on 21 October.

It is possible the decomposing carcass will continue act as an attractant that could lead to sharks coming close in to shore along this stretch of coast.

While it’s not uncommon for sharks to be present off the Western Australian coast throughout the year, people should exercise additional caution until the whale carcass is removed, and report any shark sightings to Water Police on 9442 8600.

Advice is that water users should:

Take additional caution in the Peaceful Bay area.
Keep informed of the latest detection and sighting information by checking the Surf Life Saving Twitter – twitter.com/SLSWA.
Report any shark sightings to Water Police on 9442 8600.
Adhere to any beach closures advised by your Local Government Rangers or Surf Life Saving WA.
Shark sighting information reported to Water Police is provided to response agencies and to the public on the Surf Life Saving Twitter feed.

This information is also available via a link on the Department of Fisheries website shark pages at www.fish.wa.gov.au/shark.

Back to News & Alerts