Dexter Barelds attacked by croc at South Johnstone River
A young Far North fisherman who was catapulted to internet fame after being attacked by a crocodile has defended his actions after being blasted on social media. See the video.
A teenage fisherman who was catapulted to internet fame after being attacked by a crocodile has defended his actions after being blasted on social media.
On Sunday Dexter Barelds was flicking lures with two other mates along a creek that runs into the South Johnstone River, a long way from the coast in the Wooroonooran National Park.
In the video posted to theWiseMonkeys Tik Tok account, the three lads can be seen wading through waist deep water when Mr Barelds spots the outline of a croc on the bottom of the creek.
“Dexter, don't get eaten,” one mate says in the video.
The 17-year-old said he has fished in that creek many times without incident and believes low water levels had some impact on the crocodile’s movement up the creek.
“He was always up ahead of us and he was in a shallow pocket of water behind a log, when I got a couple of metres ahead of him he got out of the shallow water and lay on my foot and at first I thought it was a turtle or an eel and I looked down and realised it was a croc,” he said.
“(Mum) called me an idiot, she was not very impressed and neither was dad.
“I’m very lucky it was not bigger and I’m definitely not going back into the water, I’ll maybe take a boat next time.”
Following a barrage of negative comments on social media, uncle Julian Dahlstrom defended Mr Barelds by stating most outdoors activities in the tropics come with risks.
“The way I look at it, you are taking a risk on all sports like spearfishing, and a cassowary can kill you, and you can go on a bush walk and bump into a taipan,” he said.
“There’s always some sort of risk.
“A lot of people provoke animals but this is an attack by a crocodile when he was fishing.”
Last year the state government introduced new laws to discourage “dangerous or careless behaviours “that made it an offence to approach within 10m of a crocodile but Mr Dahlstrom insists his nephew broke no laws.
Wildlife protection group Community Representation of Crocodiles spokesman Matt Cornish described the incident as a “huge wake-up call”.
“This is absolutely shocking, it’s the equivalent of walking along a train track with ear muffs and blindfold on, you truly don’t know when something is going to go wrong,” he said.
“We really do need to make sure we keep an eye on our younger generation … not only do we want to keep people safe, we want to keep crocodiles safe.”
Originally published as Dexter Barelds attacked by croc at South Johnstone River
