A 33-foot-long humpback whale rolled into a seaside, saltwater pool Wednesday local time, dismaying swimmers and possibly closing one of Sydney’s northern beaches.
The dead, juvenile Moby was swept to shore because of rough seas and local officials were hoping that similarly high tides might wash the creature back out to sea by evening, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
During the day, there was reportedly a sign in the Newport Beach area reading, “beach closed due to whale carcass,” although some still braved the potentially shark-infested waters, according to viewers calling into an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio program.
"I swim every day and I’m not sharing my lane with that," one caller named Richard said.
Jeff Ross, a spokesperson for the country’s National Parks and Wildlife Service, told the station that old or sick humpbacks tend to wash to shore in big seas.
"What happens is they'll die at sea and usually that's all dealt with by those big predators that are sitting out there offshore," he said.
"In big seas the predators don't get the opportunity to deal with the carcass so it often washes in and we've seen that on several occasions over the last few years,” he said.
Ross said the whale could weigh up to 30 tons and would pose a hefty problem for the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
i bet that sucker STANKS!!!
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