An Australian man has been charged with stealing a monitoring tag from a great white shark, reportedly setting off a string of false shark alarms in Western Australia.
Police in the town of Albany charged the 48-year-old man with stealing an "acoustic monitor tag" used to track great white sharks off the coast, they said in a statement received Wednesday.
He is to face Albany magistrates court on November 4.
Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of 34 receivers dotted along the West Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings of the danger at key locations.
Though police gave no further details, a report in the West Australian newspaper said the man removed the tag when he caught a great white shark by mistake and then released it alive.
The tag then allegedly set off shark alarms seven times between August 13 and September 4, the paper said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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