Great white shark seven-metre long 'in lake'

reply to post by alienstar


what kind of scientist says this?

"It wouldn't even fit in that lake," West told Australia's AAP news agency. "A large shark like that would stick out like dog's balls."

www.earthtimes.org...

reply to post by Crakeur


Suppose the guy is a Sydney's Taronga Zoo shark expert John West.Gotta love the Au outback lingo.

Ill keep an eyes on this and any new alerts ill post them.Hopefully someone is going in there to check it out.I think this could fit in there.

This reports-How would the ocean-going monster have gotten into freshwater lagoon? Tuggerah Lake is connected to the Pacific Ocean through a tidal channel called The Entrance. It is 12 km long and 4 km. wide, with an average depth of 6-7 m, roughly 20 feet. "It's not a big lake," said Chief Inspector Winmill, "but it's a bloody big shark — if it's true."

Thats 20 feet plenty deep enough.

A Tuggerah Lakes police spokesman today said there had been no further sightings of the shark.

reply to post by alienstar


is he not taking into consideration that this shark swam in when it was smaller and got stuck? also, great whites can swim in relatively shallow water given their size, it is possible that the shark has been in the lake for a while now, growing.

I'm not saying it is or is not true, just pointing out some flaws in the debunking.

Originally posted by Crakeur
what kind of scientist says this?

"It wouldn't even fit in that lake," West told Australia's AAP news agency. "A large shark like that would stick out like dog's balls."

It's an Aussie thang.

www.koalanet.com.au...

[edit on 10-7-2008 by Tuning Spork]

it wasn't the expression that bothered me, more so that a scientist would use it in this case. scientists tend to use more scholarly descriptions.

I will say this, after seeing Van Wilder 2 last night, the expression is rather perfect.

reply to post by Crakeur


That could be a possibility.I would say the lakes could be still salt water since its so close and some have enough room to wash away the salt.Or could it be possible it adapted to freshwater like the bull shark can?Au crocodiles have two species,the regular saltwater crocodile and the version called the freshie which adapted to freshwater.

reply to post by alienstar


it's a salt lake. 2/3 the salinity of seawater. see my link above for that.

According to report the lakes contain red flounder,bream, whiting, flathead, blackfish, perch, flounder, jewfish, trevally, bluenose, cod,
groper, redfish, salmon, teraglin, snapper, rainbow, sea whiting, many others.

Fisherman’s Paradise

You enthusiastic anglers – don’t dream of big catches – COME HERE AND GET THEM! …
Look at the variety – bream, whiting, flathead, blackfish, perch, flounder, jewfish, trevally, bluenose, cod,
groper, redfish, salmon, teraglin, snapper, rainbow, sea whiting, many others. Like other Tuggerah
Lakes attractions, the fish are good all the year round. …
Anglers, treat yourselves to a perfect holiday. Come to the place where there ARE fish – big fish, and
plenty of them! Prove for yourselves that there’s no place like
TUGGERAH LAKES FOR A FISHERMAN’S HOLIDAY!


Thats a huge variety of fish to support a great white diet.

So it is mostly salt.


[edit on 10-7-2008 by alienstar]

Past history of the opening:2.6 Opening of the entrance channel



Permanent entrance channel - letter to the editor (The Entrance Guardian, 1

R. Yeend, Jefferies Road, Chittaway Point, writes (in part) as follows:-


Sir, In reply to Mr. Duffy's letter regarding the opening of the entrance at Tuggerah Lakes. Mr. Duffy
says if we have a permanent channel sharks will come in, and it would be better to leave the opening of
the channel to Nature. It is a wonder that Mr. Duffy does not ask us to wear a fig leaf and go right back
to Nature!


But no fear, we want to be right up to date and have a permanent channel; as far as the sharks are
concerned, that trouble could be easily overcome by a strong iron grating to keep the sharks out and let
the fish in.


It is strange that we heard nothing about sharks getting into the lake all the past years, but when the
matter of a permanent channel is brought up we hear about them.


The Illawarra Council often opens the Illawarra lake; also, Narrabeen lake is opened by the Council. We
don't hear of sharks getting in these lakes.

Glad it didn't happen here it would be labeled a terrorist attack...

This is a seriously strange story, some how I feel like it's true, there are ways it could happen great whites are known to be very big jumpers, also very muscular is could have landed in there in pursuit of something and kept shimmying for miles going the wrongway

A large wave in theory could have landed it in there...

improbable but a water spoout could have picked it up, tornados can throw a cow miles.. maybe?

Ocean is a powerful force, it's possible

It very possible the shark just came in and maybe just swam around the deepest areas, it was in there very early and it could have only been there for an hour. Large ocean fish probably swim along the coast every day and just wander in and out with no one noticing at all. Especially at 5:30am

I'm going to say the fisherman is mistaken.

1. I live on these lakes
If there is a 7 metre fish getting around it would be a simple task of flying over.
The lakes from the air are transparent virtually because of there overall shallowness. Check google earth.Enter Toukley New South Wales Au.

2. There has never been a valid sighting of a shark in the lake.
There has been speculation that bull sharks have been sighted in some of the deeper arms of the Wyong river, but again, no photos.

3. There are very low fishstocks in the lake system relative to
adjoining system Lake Macquarie.

In any case I'll be asking around.Its possible the locals have cooked this up as
it is school holidays here at the moment, and the tourist are all up here in there boats fishing the place to death as usual.Ill probably take my bout out for a sqizz though

Cheers

Mungo

reply to post by mungodave


Thanks man,yes please ask around since this is a interesting story.I didn't think someone on this board would be so close to the source of the story.

In fact, its probably just as easy to speak to a few of the local fish co-ops around the lake.

I imagine they'll look at me like I'm a conspiracy theorist

Cheers

Mungo

Ive been a fan of the white shark ever since my 5th grade summer, I watched as a local fisherman pulled a 10ft white shark up to the Avila Beach, Ca. pier.
Only to lose it because neither the fisherman or his buddy brought a gaff hook and they tried to walk it in from the end of the pier to land it on the beach, but when they got it in the break, it started to really thrash about and the line broke.
They worked it for about 2-1/2 -3 hrs on 40lb? line, was very entertaining for an 11year old lad.
And I swam in those waters all the time, even at night we swam out to the end of the pier.
But then a couple of weeks later I saw "Jaws", I didnt swin out to the end of the pier anymore, in the day or night.
Our waters here off of central cal, are teaming with white sharks, and the area bounded by bodega bay in the north, morrow bay to the south and the farallon islands to the west is full of seal and sea lion breeding colonies.
And they follow the seals as they do thier migratory thing.

The behavior of the california white sharks has been shown to be very complicated indeed, a far cry from the "mindless eating machines" that they have been made out to be.
It has been found that they live in loose matriarchal groups, with an alpha female, subordinate and younger females and young males, with the adult males living on their own.
And the groups compete over territory when they happen to be in the same place.
It is know that they work togther at times to catch prey.
One group even hunted down and killed a particular killer whale that was an avid shark killer.
They would follow the seals from the breeding grounds on the cal. coast and the farallon islands out to thier several month stay in th open ocean.
The seals migrate out to waters north of hawaii where they live for several months without making landfall.
The sharks follow them, prey on the seals and wht ever comes along.
It was also found that the white sharks SLEEP : o, it used to be though that white sharks didnt really sleep they just cruised on auto pilot to rest.
At night they observed the white sharks diving to depths of 1,000' and going to sleep, floating nose down with the current in a thermocline, in groups. After several hours they wake up and go hunting again, and they patrol the same territories.

A group of several young white sharks possibly killed a young whale, and were feeding on the carcass, when the alpha female showed up. All of the subordinate sharks moved away from the carcass till the alpha female ate her fill, then they went back to it.

And when the killer whale pods show up the sharks will dissapear.


Any way I dont think the shark if there was one was 7 meters thats pretty f'@#*ing big, people would see it.
Big white sharks can move through pretty shallow water but 150m of knee deep water I dont know.
It could have gotten into the lagoon durin a storm surge or unusually high tide, but chances are it would die, white sharks are notoriously hard to keep alive in captivity, even in huge tanks that all sorts of other sharks, even ocean going sharks, do just fine in.

7 meters is a monster, that same summer as jaws one of the coastal aqauriaums had a 16' preserved white shark OMG that was a big scary looking animal I think it weighed 2500 lb.
I remember when I was about 15, reading an account of a couple who sailed around the world in their 60' yatch, when they were off the coast of chile a shark came up to the surface near their boat.
The skipper estimated its length to be about 40', he was able to get one polaroid of it just as it slipped below the surface.
In the photo it looked big, the fins were just going under.

I'd be interested in seeing that polaroid if you know of a link?
I believe it's totally possible that if it'd gotten into the the lake at a young age and grown as the thriving apex predator of the whole lake but surely with tourists 'fishing the place to death' then it would've been caught before-hand.
Could just be another fisherman's 'The one that got away' stories.
Hopefully someone else will capture it and we'll get some proof.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS
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[edit on 12-7-2008 by alienstar]

I used to swim in Tuggerah Lake as a youngster and I still live on the Central Coast in the neighbouring shire

For at least the last 20 years (a conservative estimate) the lake has been a problem for the local council due to silting and excessive weed growth which requires constant dredging. That in itself is indicative of the depth. People stopped swimming in there over 20 years ago.

My husband and I were also members of the NSW State Emergency Service and he trained a Boat Rescue Officer and was told that the max depth may only be about 10 feet in some areas. I remember as a child being able to walk far out into the lake and it being only chest high.

The lake is connected by a channel that is sometmes closed due to the silting but it could be possible for sharks to enter when it is open and at high tide. The channel is next to a very popular beach and people do swim in the channel.

There was a previous sighting and I have provided a link

www.news.com.au...


take care
res

[edit on 12-7-2008 by resistancia]

reply to post by resistancia


Thank you for the link and information.Goes to show you they can and do get in there.Have you heard anything since you live there on this shark we are talking about?I haven't heard anymore news on this subject in days.