New video emerges of possible Straddie ‘crocodile’

A woman has told how she “freaked out” when she saw what looked like a crocodile at North Stradbroke Island last week, but initially dismissed the possibility before another reported sighting on Wednesday.

The hunt for a 3m saltwater crocodile reported in waters off North Stradbroke Island on Wednesday has continued, with two crocodile experts flown in from North Queensland to help.

The Department of Environment and Science said on Thursday wildlife rangers had so far been unsuccessful in catching the croc, which remains on the loose in waters roughly 20km east of Wellington Point on the Redlands Coast.

“Vessel-based spotlight surveys conducted last night did not reveal any evidence of the presence of a crocodile,” the department said.

“Three vessels are currently searching waters on the eastern side of the island, and rangers are also using drones.

“The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service has flown two experienced crocodile management wildlife officers from North Queensland to assist in the investigation.”

The department said the sighting was credible but highly unusual, while dismissing earlier expert claims that crocodiles would eventually migrate to southern waters.

Rangers search for the suspected crocodile off the Redland Coast.

“A key finding from the department’s Queensland Estuarine Crocodile Monitoring Program 2016–19 found the distribution of crocodiles in Queensland has not changed over time, and found no evidence of a southward expansion of their range,” it said.

Members of the public were asked not to fly their own drones over the search area and to report any crocodile sightings through the QWildlife app or by calling 1300 130 372.

Minjerribah ranger-in-charge Jacob Martin is part of the search committee said overnight searches for the beast had been unsuccessful.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t locate the croc but it was still a very interesting search.”

He said as the team was patrolling along the mangroves at south of the island when a large splash gave the committee a fright.

“We didn’t pick up any eyes but the commotion, that was ruled out as a large turtle,” he said.

“It definitely woke us all up as the tide was coming out and the surf was coming to an end so we couldn’t get into the mangroves.”

A woman filmed what appeared to be a crocodile near Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island.

Mr Martin said the reports of a sighting came as a huge shock and if it weren’t for explicit direction from his boss he would have sat out of the search.

“I would have just sat in my chair and told the other workers like ‘we’ve got some serious stuff here I’ve gotta sort out on the computer’, and I wouldn’t have got out of my seat.”

“But the search is back under way today with a couple of vessels going out with our rangers on, waiting for the low tide to get people walking, we got people out again with drones,” he said.

A second sighting of the crocodile will give rangers a better indication of where to place traps, he said.

It comes as a new video has emerged of another possible crocodile sighting at North Stradbroke Island, 12km from where a croc was reportedly spotted on Wednesday morning.

Jessica Bela was paddle boarding with her mum about 100m from the mud flats at Amity Point last Thursday morning when she got a shock.

“There was this shape of what looked like a crocodile above the surface of the water,” Ms Bela said.

“My mum and I freaked out a little. It was creepy seeing this crocodile shape.”

Ms Bela said she was so certain it was a crocodile but dismissed the idea knowing they aren’t usually found at North Stradbroke.

“It completely looked like one, I wasn’t second guessing for a minute,” she said.

“I just thought in my head, we are too far south. If I was in Cairns and I saw that I would’ve been fully freaked out.”

Ms Bela said she got out of the water with her mum instantly because she was convinced it was a crocodile.

Wildlife rangers closed part of the island on Wednesday after Straddie Adventures owner Mark Jones reported sighting a three metre crocodile during one of his morning kayak tours.

The small crocodile was reportedly seen at Myora Springs while Jones was leading a group of nine kayakers through a mangrove area about 7.45am.

“I was sitting there in the kayak where I do a talk … I thought it was a log to start with,” he said.

“It went under … then it came back up, about 10m to 15m away.

“I was spinning.”

Wildlife rangers spent the day scanning the island waters using boats and drones but could not locate the croc, with a spotlight search extending into the night.

Mr Jones said his fellow kayakers were “just as shocked as me”, noting he’d never seen or heard of a crocodile being spotted on the island, with western waters feeding into Moreton Bay.

But University of Queensland crocodile expert Associate Professor Steven Salisbury said the southern sighting was completely unsurprising and that South East Queenslanders could soon expect to see a lot more crocs as they start seeking new territory.

He said crocodile populations had “bounced back” after being brought to near extinction in the 1970s and the new adults were now venturing south to avoid being eaten by older relatives.

“A three metre croc is very capable of swimming long distances in the open ocean. We’ve had studies in collaboration with Australia Zoo where they’ve tracked crocs swimming up to 50km a day,” Mr Salisbury said.

“They just seek warm temperatures. With climate change and oceans gradually warming, it’s going to change that natural southern limit of salt water crocs.

“I’m actually waiting for the day where we spot a croc sunning itself among the mangroves below the (Brisbane) Story Bridge.”

Mr Salisbury said traditional relocation tactics would also render ineffective, as crocodiles have been found to easily retrace their steps.

“Crocs are like birds, if you remove one from one area, unless it's more than thousands of km away, it’s just going to swim back,” Mr Salisbury said.

“We've done studies where we’ve captured a croc on one side of Cape York and flown it to the other side. Within a week it swam back to the other side.

“Flooding is also linking up a lot of water courses as well, which is basically like opening up a croc highway.”

Department of Environment and Science data shows 105 crocodiles were spotted throughout areas north of Gladstone over the past 30 days.

Four years ago a croc was sighted as far south as Gympie, about 160km north of Brisbane, meaning the Stradbroke Island sighting would be record breaking for South East Queensland.

Originally published as New video emerges of possible Straddie ‘crocodile’