Wildlife rangers search for Noosa crocodile after potential sighting
Rangers have been scouring the area from the air, land and water following the potential sighting by long-time angler James Graham.
He said he spotted the croc-shaped silhouette on his "fish finder" on the weekend, prompting a search of the Noosa River that continued last night.
A drone has been deployed and the search will continue today and into this evening.
Program coordinator Scott Booth said there had not been other public sightings since Mr Graham's report.
"We'd also expect to see a crocodile sitting out for long periods trying to soak up any sunshine on exposed banks near the edge of the water, and we just haven't seen that," Mr Booth said.
He said there was a chance the sighting involved a different animal.
"That's probably more indicative of potentially a dolphin or shark, or something like that moving across the bottom of the water," Mr Booth said.
Yesterday Mr Graham told the ABC he had spent time fishing off northern Queensland and had seen crocodiles on the fish-finder monitor before.
The habitat for Queensland crocodiles is thought to end at Gladstone's Boyne River, about 300km north of Noosa.
In recent months a crocodile was euthanased at Mary River and another was photographed at Inskip Point.
University of Queensland professor Craig Franklin said there were sometimes "stragglers" outside traditional crocodile habitats because a larger male has forced them out of their territory.
Professor Franklin said there were historical cases of crocodiles recorded as far south as the Brisbane and Logan rivers.
He said the reptiles generally made their way back north to warmer waters.
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