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Whale 'lures' sharks off Albany

This photo shows the scale of the massive great white shark tagged twice by Fisheries Department officers near Albany late last month.

Fisheries equipment detected the shark about 20 times at the weekend near Middleton Beach, where a humpback whale washed up early on Saturday. Surf Life Saving WA warned swimmers the whale would attract sharks and the City of Albany closed the beach on Saturday morning while it removed the carcass.

On Sunday, March 30, the great white was hooked, flipped on to its back and tagged off Mistaken Island. It had been fitted with an external tag several days earlier.

The female is believed to be the biggest shark internally tagged in Australia. It weighed about 1600kg and was about 5.3m - longer than the beached whale.

Just before 4pm yesterday, SLSWA tweeted that a 4m white shark had been spotted near Gull Rock in the King George Sound.