General News
20 May, 2026
Warning over croc taunting
A KEY crocodile advocacy group has taken a swipe at those responsible for the latest incident involving ‘Clyde’ the crocodile at Babinda.
CROC – Community Representation of Crocodiles – reposted a video of a large fish being dangled from a pole at the spot on the Russell River where Clyde is frequently spotted and photographed sunning himself on a sandy bank.
The original video was first shown on a separate social media platform by wild angling ‘influencer’ Kymmy Adams, known online as ‘Lady Anglers Downunder’ and ‘salty.gypsy.fishing’.
In the commentary, Ms Adams says it is clear that human behaviour around crocodiles needs to be officially cracked down on.
She called the ‘baiting’ incident “absolutely ridiculous”, adding, “you’re seeing this person and that person complaining about our apparent crocodile issue. What we actually have is a people issue – this, for example.
“Someone has taken the opportunity to attach a damn fish to the end of a bamboo stick obviously trying to encourage crocodile behaviour, absolutely ridiculous,” Ms Adams remarks.
CROC’s Nick Snell says the intention of the ‘baiting’ was an illegal attempt to get the animal to come close.
“In the human wildlife, conflict space, this is what we like to call really stupid,” he said.
“Not only is it really stupid, it’s also very illegal. Now, unfortunately, this keeps happening.
“You may recall, last year, a deer head was found in almost the same spot. People keep baiting this crocodile.
“It’s not even the only crocodile that this happens to. People work very hard to get these (prohibited feeding of crocodiles) laws put in place to keep people and wildlife safe.
“Now we’ve got those laws. Are we actually going to use them now?”
The state agency that manages crocodiles in the wild, the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation (DETSI) has reminded the public feeding saltwater crocodiles in Queensland is illegal and carries a $2670 on-the-spot fine, with any suspected offences urged to be reported.
A DETSI spokeswoman told The Observer that “we will continue to take strong compliance action against those who break the law”.
“Every crocodile sighting report is thoroughly investigated and we encourage anyone with information to report it so it can be looked into,” she said.
But there was apparently no official report of the latest incident of baiting Clyde, with the department saying “no recent reports of a large crocodile near Babinda have been received.”
DETSI told the newspaper that during a period last year of “heightened visitor activity” at the spot where Clyde – a crocodile estimated at about 4.5m in length – frequently inhabits, the area was regularly patrolled by wildlife officers and “temporary signage was installed to educate the public for their safety and explaining the new laws.”
Those new laws not only included the $2670 on the spot fine, but also other increased penalties:
Offence: On-the-spot fine (approximately.) - maximum court penalty
Deliberately feeding or disturbing: $2670 - $27,538
Interfering with a crocodile trap: $2670 - $27,538
Knowingly remaining near a croc on land: $834 - $16,690
Unintentionally feeding (e.g. leaving scraps): $500 - $6676
Harming or killing a crocodile: N/A - $36,292-plus.
The CROC group says the laws, which it says are still relatively new, need more awareness and importantly, full enforcement – especially at the now well-known spot where Clyde dwells.
“So if those sorts of people can get near him, we should probably make sure that it’s very, very, very clear to those people what is and isn’t acceptable, and that if they are going to do things that are not acceptable, there are consequences for those actions,” Mr Snell says.
Read More: Babinda