Shark’s wrong turn
A WHALE shark has Far Northern fishers talking about the one that’s got a way off course — 40km in fact.
The six-metre long gentle giant has spent more than a week in the Hey River, south of Weipa, with experts claiming it could be a world first.
A WHALE shark that has strayed more than 40km from the ocean has wowed Far Northern fishers – and it could be a world first.
The gentle giant, estimated to be about 6m long, has spent more than a week swimming along the Hey River, south of Weipa.
The filter-feeding shark was first spotted a week ago by locals, who initially thought it was a large sawfish.
However, Sportfisher Hire Boats Weipa operator Josh Lyon said word quickly spread through the local fishing community that the animal, whose enormous tail and wide head came up clearly on his fishfinder, was an oceanic whale shark.
“It’s been in the same area, roughly for about three days running,” he said.
“I don’t understand what it’s up to.
“It seems to be stuck here, but it looks happy and healthy, despite the water being so murky.”
Whale sharks, the largest of all fishes, are pelagic species that are normally found in offshore waters in both tropical and warm temperate waters across the world.
Growing to a maximum size of 10m, they are known to congregate at Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, and along the Great Barrier Reef.
CSIRO whale shark researcher Richard Pillans, who was made aware of the Weipa whale shark last week, believed it could be a world first.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said.
“It’s certainly the first time, to my knowledge, that a whale shark has been found that far upstream, anywhere in the world.”
Dr Pillans suggested the shark may either be lost or sick.
“It’s not trapped, because there’s relatively deep water where it is, so it could get out, in theory,” he said.
“But it’s a big animal, so it could be trapped because it’s made a wrong turn and it got confused.
“Or it could be confused. Often animals like this end up in places like that because they’re not functioning properly and it’s taken a wrong turn.”
The whale shark will be monitored by local fishers and Dr Pillans over the next few days.