Crocodiles stalking beach-goers

A territory teacher and paddle boarder John Miller told his story in todays NT News of how a 2 metre crocodile surfaced close by whilst he and his kayaking mate were 10 metres offshore on Monday.

"we paddled back quickly to shore and when we got up on the sand and looked back it had followed us and come right in to the shallows. Its pretty scary."

Earlier on today crocodile management officers caught 3 crocodiles in traps in Darwin Harbour, including a 2 metre crocodile in a trap in Rapid Creek that had been set yesterday.

Some other crocodile related incidents on beaches.

Darwin, NT. In early 2003 an incident occured where a dog was nearly nibbled. A group of people standing on the Rapid Creek bridge were marveling at the sight of a crocodile in the shallows directly below, when somebody down below, oblivious to the crocodile threw a stick out in the water for his dog to fetch. The shocked observers on the bridge shouted down to warn him but it was then a race between the dog and the crocodile who thought all his xmas's had come at once. Luckily the dog made it back to dry land first, with the stick as well.

Darwin, NT. In the late 1980's a local was taking a training swim outside the NT Surf Life Saving Centre at Casuarina Beach when life guards spotted a large crocodile moving slowly towards him and attempted to warn him. The swimmer was oblivious to the crocodile but luckily he was not attacked.

Cairns, QLD. Last year Max, a ridgeback-cross, had a rather lucky escape from the jaws of a crocodile. The dog was drinking from a freshwater pool at Clifton Beach when...

"I heard this enormous splash... there was a flurry of water and activity and then the dog came flying out and he was bleeding," said the dog's owner Ms. Callaway. "It was just all water and me screaming."

After being patched up by the vet, the dog seems to have gotten over it now.

"It's me that needs a stiff drink," Ms. Callaway said.

Cairns, QLD. last year a lady swimming within the stinger net at Holloway's Beach had a shock of her life when she came face to face with 2-3 metre crocodile resting on the edge of the stinger net. She swam away without incident.

North QLD. A few years ago a local north of Cairns dived into the surf after having what he described as a few too many, got an even bigger shock of his life when he landed on top of a crocodile, it lashed out at him and swam away, probably as shocked as he was.

Furore in Queensland

The recent and unfortunate death of Arthur Booker has opened a can of worms in Queensland over their crocodile management program. In case you're not living in Australia, or you've been living under a rock for the past few weeks, 62 year old Arthur Booker was taken by a crocodile on 30 September whilst checking crab pots on the Endeavour River near Cooktown.

This resulted in a lot of media stories covering the crocodile attack, usually with the most horrifying and impactful photos of crocodiles to accompany them.

Something like this...

The media focus certainly got people nervous about crocs and kept them in their minds.

Around this time a crocodile had begun to be regularly spotted near high profile tourist destination Magnetic Island. And then it was discovered that the crocodile was part of a research project tracking crocodiles.

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said yesterday that the 3.5m crocodile had been trapped near the Cape York community of Bamaga earlier this year and released more than 1000km south, in a creek near Townsville, as part of satellite tracking program Crocs in Space to see whether it would establish a new home range."

As you can imagine, a lot of people including tourists and local businesses weren't happy to find out his new home range now included Magnetic Island.

This created a storm with Queensland politicians looking for someone to blame and also trying to distance themselves from the issue. The next thing that occurred was a whistleblower reputed to be a wildlife ranger who wrote a letter to parliament. Among other things it said that relocated crocodiles that were part of the research project were believed to be responsible for the fatalities of Arthur Booker and Barry Jefferies in Lakefield National Park in 2005.

The truth is, this will probably have major repercussions for crocodile management in Queensland. The entire management programme has already been put up for review and a lot of questions will need to be asked to find out how it got to this stage. There are many opinions on the best approach for managing crocodiles and they are often very strong ones.

However regarding this entire issue we will be keeping our ears open with anticipation for future updates.