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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/lat...953ddc8ef375837

NT inquest hears croc victim's last words

THE last thing Thi Ban Le heard her husband say was "oh my God, I'm dead".

LANH Van Tran was seized by a well known 4.6-metre albino saltwater crocodile called Michael Jackson when he waded into the Adelaide River in August last year to free a snagged fishing line.

The 57-year-old's death is being investigated by an inquest into the killing of two fishermen in Top End waters between June and August last year.

Mr Tran, a farmer, had taken up fishing enthusiastically in the year he lived in the Northern Territory and liked to go out with his wife along the Adelaide River, home to thousands of crocodiles.

Ms Le said they hadn't seen any that day and thought it was safe to fish.

As they were leaving her husband waded into the water to unhitch a snagged line.

"I was packing up the car when I heard him shout, `oh my god, I'm dead', and I turned around and I saw the crocodile's tail; it swung very high in the air," she told the Darwin Coroners Court on Monday.

The family of Darwin man Bill Scott, 62, also described how he was snatched from his tinnie while on a billabong in Kakadu National Park last June.

The court heard it was the first instance of a person being taken from a boat, but unlikely to be the last.

Mr Scott, an experienced fisherman and bushman, had been filling a bucket of water when he was taken.

"I saw a huge set of jaws on his shoulder, right down to his chest, and I thought, that's a huge croc," his daughter-in-law Joanne told the court.

"It happened in seconds; he was gone, and there was not a thing we could do."

Coroner Greg Cavanagh, who sat in the courtroom flanked by the skulls of both crocodiles, which were shot by rangers after the attacks, said he had become increasingly concerned about the dangers posed by the reptiles.

"I wanted to put it out there publicly in people's faces that we've got to learn to live with man-eating animals," he said.

Crocodiles were hunted to near extinction in the NT after the Second World War, with only about 3000 left in the wild in 1971 when they became a protected species.

There are now about 100,000 crocodiles, or one for every two Territorians.

Ranger Gary Lindner told the court the more he learnt what crocodiles were capable of, the more alarmed he became.

With more feral horses, pigs, cattle and wild dogs roaming near waterways, he said crocodiles had become adept at snatching larger prey, and were less fearful of humans.

"The only thing that seems immune is water buffalo; its skin is like a sinewy matrix, whereas horses, cattle, pigs, (their skin) just rips like paper," Mr Lindner said.

He said a minority of hardcore NT fishermen were not heeding the danger warnings. "A lot of local fishermen think, she'll be right; there's periods of high alert but six months later people will relax again," he said.

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John aka NitroX

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Govt get out of our lives NOW!
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