Port Macq Council Forced To Dig Up Huge, Stinky Whale It Buried Last Week

The Port Macquarie-Hastings council has been forced to dig up a whale carcass it decided to bury in the sand on a beach, after locals were outraged at a sudden influx of great white sharks. Weird.

The 18-tonne humpback was beached on Sunday, and since then it’s attracted an astonishing 21 great white sharks to Nobby’s Beach on the New South Wales coast, with one local bloke saying he came “face to face” with one while snorkelling.

Thousands of residents in the area signed a petition to have the whale exhumed, and the council has finally caved – although it refuses to admit any wrongdoing in its decision to bury the gigantic rotting animal two metres under a popular dog beach rather than, you know, dealing with it in a sensible manner.

Development and environmental director Matt Rogers said of the operation, which involves chopping the whale up with a giant excavator, loading the bits onto trucks with a crane and carting it off to the tip:

There’s no admission of mistakes being made. [We] responded to concerns raised.

Right.

The whale removal operation is costing $50,000, and the beach will stay shut until the entire mammal, and any grotty sand, has been taken away.

Shoulda just blown it up, Paul Jennings style.

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