WHEN Tableland man Bob Roberts and his son, Timothy, pulled up their boat for lunch on the Jardine River, they weren't the only ones stopping for a bite.

On a sandbank across the river, this massive Cape York croc was tearing into a turtle – thrashing its prey through the water for more than an hour.

The men snapped photographs from their boat while out fishing at the mouth of the Jardine, at the tip of Cape York Peninsula, two weeks ago. 

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“The croc had the turtle from the rear flippers and was throwing it around, getting as much meat as it could,” Mr Roberts told The Cairns Post.

“Then he moved on to the head. We were pretty engrossed in it.”

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Mr Roberts said it was difficult to estimate the croc’s length, but guessed it was about 4.5m from snout to tail.

“You don’t see that every day,” he said. “It was the biggest one I’ve ever seen.”

And the croc wasn’t the only successful hunter that day – the younger Mr Roberts lured a haul of big catches, including fingermark.

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University of Queensland reptile expert Steve Salisbury estimated the croc was between 4.5m and 5m long.

“There’s no doubt that a crocodile of this size would have any trouble catching a full grown sea turtle, particularly in the shallow water or if it was returning to the water after laying eggs,” Dr Salisbury said.

“In the photos, it seems to be going about the job of thrashing the turtle around to dismember it.”

Dr Salisbury believed it would be difficult for a croc to break the shell of a turtle of this size and consume it whole.

But the predators were able to exert the most power at the back of the jaws, so would need to get the turtle positioned in its mouth to enable that kind of bite.

“Crocs are very opportunistic, so I’m sure if a turtle presented itself, they would have a go as this one has,” he said.

Drew Melville, from Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures, said the croc was a male judging by its size.

Mr Melville said it was not uncommon for estuarine crocodiles to snack on sea turtles, shell and all.

“They grab the animal and tear the limbs off it, but they can also digest parts of the shell as well,” Mr Melville said.

“The turtle shell is just calcium carbonate and they can break it down in their stomach quite well.”

He said he had heard reports of crocs regularly swimming out to Great Barrier Reef islands to eat turtles trying to make their way into the sea during nesting season.

Report crocodile sightings to DERM on 1300 130 372. More crocodiles at cairns.com.au/crocoff

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