POLICE have retrieved remains discovered on Oxley Beach at Port Macquarie on Friday (September 4) and confirmed they are not human.
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Port Macquarie Police were alerted to the discovery on the shoreline by a walker with a dog.
The remains were inspected and retrieved by police at about 10am. At this stage the remains are being treated as either fragments of a whale or shark carcass.
The remains have been sent away for forensic testing.
Port Macquarie ALS Lifeguards issued a notice via social media that whale carcass pieces were washing ashore on several Port Macquarie beaches and advised people to be shark smart before entering the water.
Earlier this week, a decomposed whale washed ashore south at Old Bar Beach, near Taree.
Two sections of the remains, which are mostly skeletal, washed up about 500 metres north of the surf club, with the head a further 250 metres north.
There were bite marks evident along the fin but the skeletal remains ensured any attempt to determine how the whale died could not be determined.
Marine Rescue Port Macquarie said while the timing is close to the old Bar incident, the ocean currents and winds are unlikely to have pushed any parts of that carcass this far north.
"It is much more likely to be from the carcass first reported off Solitary Islands on August 4, having drifted south in EAC currents (corresponds roughly with anticipated drift speed from last sighting of that carcass)," Marine Rescue advised.
"Sadly, assuming this is from the Solitary Islands carcass, and given scavenging shark activity and advanced decomposition, it's likely parts of this carcass may be spread over an extended area."
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