Croc still lounging
PHOTOGRAPHIC evidence of a large crocodile inhabiting Lake Placid is enough to make one of Cairns’ most dedicated swimmers pause to reconsider her morning routine.
The 3m-long saltwater crocodile, that has eluded rangers since April was snapped again at the aquatic reserve by The Cairns Post yesterday, in the same location where it was photographed by a tourist a week ago.
A floating trap, which had been used previously at the lake, has been redeployed in a renewed attempt to catch the sizeable creature.
Environment Minister Steven Miles, who was in Cairns yesterday, told reporters that specialist croc catchers had met contracted indigenous rangers yesterday to examine better ways of trapping the animal.
He said they needed to put “all of the resources they possibly can” into catching it.
“I understand the level of concern that it’s causing, certainly now there is evidence that croc is there,” he said. “That’s not to say the Aboriginal corporation haven’t put in all the effort they can, they obviously have, there’s a trap there now.
“But, if EHP can assist, then they will.”
Mr Miles said extra staff, boats or traps might be used in the effort to trap the predator.
Mooroobool resident Linda-Joy “LJ” Schipke has been swimming laps in the Caravonica aquatic recreation area for most of her adult life, earning herself the nickname the “Mermaid of Lake Placid”.
The 49-year-old was slightly alarmed when informed about the croc, saying she had swum by the rock where the reptile had been sunning itself, on Wednesday morning.
“It makes me pause a little bit, but I’ve been swimming there for so long, and it’s only turned up today,” she said.
“If it’s been there for some time, I think to myself, ‘where has he been, since I haven’t seen him?’
“It’s really weird. It makes me think twice about swimming there, but I’d still like to see it myself.”