{"id":882282,"date":"2026-06-21T07:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/882282\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T07:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:54:16","slug":"bells-beach-temporarily-closed-due-to-whale-carcass-washing-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/882282\/","title":{"rendered":"Bells Beach temporarily closed due to whale carcass washing up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Victoria&#8217;s world-famous Bells Beach has been temporarily closed after a whale carcass washed on to shore earlier today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">VicEmergency issued an alert about 2pm, warning beachgoers of a potential increase in shark activity at both Bells Beach and Winkipop.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;A whale carcass can attract sharks to the area and mean they are closer to the shore than normal,&#8221; the alert read.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;While it is not uncommon for sharks to be present off the Victorian coast, you should exercise additional caution in the area.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A whale carcass at Bells Beach\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/686fb6e453df1a2cab580c5357f9c2e1.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Surfers have been warned to avoid the area. (Supplied: Dean Snow)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">At about 3:30pm, the Great Ocean Road Coast and Parks Authority said the beach was temporarily closed due to the whale carcass washing up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Tides should drag it back out to sea, but we will continue to monitor,&#8221; the authority posted on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The Victorian Fisheries Authority is monitoring the area for shark sightings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victoria&#8217;s world-famous Bells Beach has been temporarily closed after a whale carcass washed on to shore earlier today.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":882283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,358329,23637,50,71777,358330,10828,31918],"class_list":["post-882282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-bells-beach","tag-carcass","tag-news","tag-surfing","tag-vicemergency","tag-warning","tag-whale"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116787024553823834","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=882282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/882282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/882283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=882282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=882282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=882282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}