Crocodile spotted near popular tourist beach in Palm Cove
A popular tourist beach has been closed after a large crocodile was spotted near floating just metres away from unexpecting beachgoers.
Cairns
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A massive crocodile has been spotted just metres from a popular beach, not far from where a woman was leisurely relaxing on the sand, resulting in the beach being closed.
More than three metres in length, the croc was captured on film by a local fisherman, who said it had been lurking under the Palm Cove jetty moments before it was seen floating near the stinger nets.
In the video, two men can be heard discussing the crocodile’s size.
“He’s every bit of three metres,” one man says.
“Easily three metres, easily,” the other agrees.
“That’s a man-eating size, easy.”
As the fisherman zooms in on the croc, the camera pans across to a woman on the beach, seemingly unaware of the reptile floating just metres away.
“There we are on the beach, a lady sitting there, and there’s a croc right there,” one of the men comments.
The video, filmed on Friday, December 13, has garnered significant attention online, with many locals expressing concern about the proximity of the croc to the shore.
“That’s a bit close for comfort. That’s a big crocodile,” one person wrote.
Another commented, “Ridiculous at this rate, we’ll have no tourist industry.”
The fisherman said he shared the video to promote the importance of being “CrocWise” and staying alert in crocodile-prone areas.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation DETSI, said the croc sighting resulted in the beach being closed.
“On December 13, a member of the public reported an estimated 3m crocodile in the ocean near Palm Cove,” the spokesman said.
“We are investigating the crocodile sighting, and thank the member of the public for making the sighting report”
“No water body in Croc Country can be considered to be free from crocodiles.”
The footage comes just a day after a 3.9m crocodile was captured and removed from Boar Creek, in Tully after wildlife officers discovered it had been feeding on livestock in the area and was unafraid of people.
“We’re asking people to make sensible choices around the water,” the spokesman for DETSI said.
“Summer is crocodile breeding season, and male crocodiles can become aggressive and territorial.
“Report all crocodile sightings in a timely manner to the department.”
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Originally published as Crocodile spotted near popular tourist beach in Palm Cove
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