A great white shark has washed up dead on a Victorian beach, ripped apart and covered in bite marks. But what could have done it?
What’s spookier than a five-metre great white shark? Perhaps the fact that something bigger decided to snack on the apex predator’s guts.
Word got around the small coastal Victorian town of Portland pretty quickly on Tuesday that something truly extraordinary had washed ashore.
Mark Berry, a keen surfer and long-time local, was among many from town to make the short trip across the cape to Bridgewater Bay to check out a great white carcass.
Mr Berry, his wife and another inquisitive soul paced it out, attempting to gauge the beast’s size, settling on a rough measurement of between four and five metres long.
According to Mr Berry, its entire middle section – or guts – had been eaten out.
“There was probably maybe a third of it left,” he told news.com.au.
“All that was connecting the head to the tail was the backbone. All of the centre part had been eaten out, the liver and everything.”
Mr Berry, other locals, and even academics aware of the find suspect orcas (killer whales) are to blame.
“There had been a pod of them out there during that whole period,” he revealed.
“Looking at some of the wounds on it – it had some pretty big bite marks on it – we were kind of guessing it had been preyed on by orcas.”
A local bait and tackle shop also took to social media with pictures of the shark labelling it “equal parts cool and terrifying”.
They too pointed fingers at the lingering orcas.
“We don’t (know), but orcas were spotted in the area three or four days ago, and they are known to attack white sharks … the only other thing that it possibly could be (and) would be a bigger white shark,” the store wrote.
Flinders University trophic ecologist Lauren Meyer told the ABC it was likely a killer whale had attacked the shark to get at its liver – somewhat of a delicacy among orcas, she said.
“We certainly see that they prefer the liver of white sharks, mako sharks, bronze whalers and sevengills, and even tiger sharks,” she said.
Orcas have been seen swimming in the waters off Portland Victoria in recent days. Local photographer Neil Tokin recently shot these pictures and posted them to Facebook.
Mr Berry said he’d surfed the sharky coastline near Portland for over 40 years, but run-ins with great whites were rare.
It was also the first time he’d ever seen one wash up.
“I’ve seen plenty of other things washed up on the beach here, dolphins, whales, sunfish, turtles and whatnot, but certainly not great whites – it’s a pretty rare occurrence for this area.”
“I’ve seen them surfing down here. We’ve been chased out of the water before but pretty rarely – I’ve surfed for a long time, and you probably see them once a decade.
“They’re probably out there with you though and you don’t see them.”
Fisheries officers removed the shark for further analysis, and authorities say there is no heightened risk of shark activity in the area.
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