A giant rotting whale carcass which turned South City Beach into a great white shark feeding frenzy is finally on the move, but soft sand and rain has hampered the extraction efforts.
On Wednesday afternoon, contractors began the mammoth task of digging out the beached giant with an excavator.
Once it was able to be safely accessed, heavy haulage assisted to lug the animal hundreds of metres along the shoreline to the South City Beach kiosk, where it will be craned from the sand onto a truck on Thursday morning and driven to a landfill facility.
Workers painstakingly wrapped the whale in tough, tarp-like plastic to ensure it could be transported with minimal mess.
The tedious operation took hours of planning and the Town of Cambridge put significant resources into preparations, according to Mayor Gary Mack.
“It’s 13 metres long and actually weighs 31 tons, so it requires heavy earth moving equipment to actually move it,” Mr Mack said.
The cost to ratepayers for the messy job is estimated to come in between $60,000 and $100,000 but that number could grow as time drags on.
“That’s just an estimate at this time, and much depends, obviously, on the cost of having the workers down here, the cost of the contractors,” Mr Mack said.
“It’s a big operation - there’s a lot of entry and exit points down to the beach, and we do need to guide the public and inform them of the safety issues, so we’ve actually diverted staff away from their normal job.”
Prior to commencing the removal works, officers from the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions collected biological samples which will be sent away for testing and research purposes.
The massive mammal, believed to be a humpback, became stranded in the shallows at 7.30am on Monday.
It immediately sparked a feeding frenzy, luring great white sharks dangerously close to the shore and forcing authorities to issue an urgent warning and close the coastline.
Several sharks including a five-metre monster were spotted just 10 metres from the waters edge.
Two other white sharks, including one measuring nearly four metres, were caught and tagged on drumlines deployed at nearby Floreat Beach.
Despite the warnings to stay away and the foul stench of decay, hundreds of fascinated onlookers have flocked to the sand to catch a glimpse of the predators attempting feast on the remains.
“Its gone viral. Its actually gone around the world to be honest,” Mr Mack said
“I’ve had calls from radio stations and people that I’ve never heard of before.
“As a surf lifesaver since I was 14, I have never seen sharks that close to the shore.”
Even after the whale carcass has been disposed of, the danger is expected to linger.
Shark expert Culum Brown, from Macquarie University Fish Lab, has warned that the decomposing fluids and smell seeping into the sand will keep predators prowling the waters around City Beach for at least another week.
“It’ll take several tide flows depending on how high up on the beach it ends up,” Mr Brown said.
“Sharks have an exquisite capacity for smell, so I imagine they will still be attracted to that location for quite some time yet.”
With school holidays underway, getting families back into the water is a priority but the Town of Cambridge won’t let that happen if there is a risk to beachgoers.
“Obviously, we want the beach open as soon as we can, but that’ll happen not just after the carcass is removed, but after we’ve been advised by government authorities that it’s safe to do so,” Mr Mack said.
Security contractors are standing guard at the scene and the community have been warned not to attempt to enter the exclusion while the recovery effort is underway.
Anyone caught illegally entering the restricted area could face fines of up to $250 if caught.
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