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Fish remains 'dumped' at top beach

Commercial fishermen have been caught allegedly disposing of fish offal metres off one of the South West's most popular swimming and surfing beaches.

In claims that outraged Gracetown residents nervous about shark attacks, locals reported seeing a professional fishing boat offload catch remains inside Cowaramup Bay.

Two men, including one who paddled a kayak to within touching distance of the vessel, said they saw crew washing fish and shark offal into the water at a mooring point in the bay 200m from the shore.

Both men, who did not want to be named, said the boat had also left a blood-filled oil slick behind it.

The incident happened late last month as dozens of people, including children, swam nearby.

"They came into the bay and they had a stack of shark trunks on the deck and for half an hour or so they washed out all the shark trunks," one of the men said.

"They were trimming bits of liver and things like that that were left on there from the initial clean and chucking that overboard.

"It was all just getting washed out.

"They emptied the ice boxes out which obviously had fish in them for a few days, as well as all the blood and everything that was left behind.

"So there was quite an oil slick all the way to the beach."

According to the man, the alleged dumping angered Gracetown residents. Two surfers have been killed in shark attacks off the town's coast since 2005.

He said it beggared belief that commercial fishermen would dispose of any of their catch so close to such a busy swimming and surfing spot.

WA Fishing Industry Council boss Guy Leyland confirmed that crew had hosed the decks down inside Cowaramup Bay but denied they had done anything wrong.

He said virtually all the offal was dumped at least 6km offshore.