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An image of one of the biggest great white sharks ever tagged has sparked a flurry of online interest and a fresh warning to swimmers off WA's south coast.
The 5.04-metre shark, the largest ever fitted with an internal acoustic tag off the Australian coast, was detected near Albany at the weekend when a distressed whale beached itself.
The City of Albany closed beaches on Saturday and the carcass was removed, but the massive shark is believed to have remained in the area.
The shark was fitted with an internal tag last month when it was swimming near Mistaken Island off the Albany coast.
Department of Fisheries officers hooked the great white and flipped it onto its back near the side of their boat.
The department's Mark Kleeman said a photo taken during the procedure shows the shark in a state of temporary paralysis known as "tonic immobility".
"In a sense the shark basically goes to sleep, which enables our technical officers to do a small surgical procedure to implant an acoustic tag inside the shark's gut cavity," he said.
At the time it was taken the Fisheries officer was completing the final stitches to the female shark's belly as it lay docile in the water.
Mr Kleeman said the shark woke up as soon as it was flipped over.
"It was an impressive feat," he said.
"In this instance the shark came pretty much instantaneous back to life.
"All the ropes and the equipment used to secure the animal has quick release clips on it, so she was quickly released so she swam off very strongly."
He said the tag - the second to be attached to the animal - would allow it to be monitored for the next 10 years.
The giant great white has been detected periodically near Albany since it was tagged.
It was last detected at Ellen Cove, near one of the city's popular swimming beaches, at 5:44am (AWST) yesterday.
Mr Kleeman said swimmers near Albany should be cautious for the next few days.
"Obviously with that whale incidence and the distress signals that would have sent out, it would have attracted sharks and they will probably frequent the beach on and off for the next few days," he added.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-...ite-spotted-off-south-west-coast/5392236
