iStockphoto / Sahil Malhotra / RamonCarretero
large great white shark next to picturesque City Beach suburb in Perth, Australia
There is a new celebrity in Australia drawing in thousands of visitors all seeking to catch a glimpse. I am talking, of course, about the rotting whale carcass in Perth whose stench has drawn in great whites close to the beach while creating interminable traffic jams from visitors hoping to see the whale.
Just in the past few days, multiple adult great white sharks have been spotted a stone’s throw off the beach after being attracted to the rotting whale carcass like a moth to a flame. Field biologists have taken advantage of the unique opportunity and began capturing and tagging the white sharks.
Whale Carcass In Perth, Australia Draws Thousands Of Visitors And Great White Sharks
City Beach is a wealthy suburb of Perth, Australia that’s known for expensive waterfront/coastal homes, and most certainly not known for rotting whale carcasses, at least until now. But this whale has taken over the national news and social media. I cannot scroll Instagram Reels for more than 5 minutes without seeing at least 2 videos of the Perth whale carcass.
Among the major media outlets to pick up the story is 9 News Australia who captured footage of biologists tagging great white sharks just a stone’s throw from the sand.
Over on Instagram, the Perth whale carcass is everywhere. Someone said “imagine dying and becoming Perth’s most interesting weekend activity” and it is hard to deny anything in and around Perth was more popular last weekend than the whale carcass.
The traffic jams caused by the rotting whale carcass have been outrageous but the crowds on the beach have been treated to front row seats of shark action, so the juice has certainly been worth the squeeze for many:
Are this many sharks common in Perth?
It is no coincidence that there appears to be a ton of great white sharks off City Beach in Perth. Spring and into early Summer are when the region sees its most white shark activity of the year, from September through December.
So as these sharks have shown up in large numbers around City Beach, they have also been concentrated to this particular region after they call caught a whiff of rotting whale stench.
This certainly creates issues for lifeguards in the region but at this point the rotting whale carcass in Perth has become such a national celebrity that nobody would be foolish enough to go in the water without knowing there are sharks in the area. With all of that in mind, there are a lot of questions about what happens next.
Do they wrap chains around the whale carcass and drag it out to sea? If they do that, they run the risk of the whale washing back up on shore.
My vote would be to blow it up as happened in Florence, Oregon back in November, 1970. That infamous exploding whale led to the very first ‘Viral Video’ in American history and it is a story still talked about to this day with an annual event commemorating the exploding whale. For the uninitiated:
What do you think they should do? Drag it out to sea and risk it washing back up? Allow the rotting whale to run its course and inundate the surrounding area with the scent of death for weeks to come? Or blow it up. Hit me with your answers in the comments!