The Daly River in Australia’s Northern Territory is a tidal river known to local fishermen for its abundance of barramundi.
It is also one of three locations on the continent known for regularly occurring tidal bores — enigmatic swells created when the leading edge of the incoming tide forms a wave of water that travels up a river or narrow bay against the direction of the river or bay’s current.
Carl Skyring, a charter fisherman of Darwin Barra and Crab Tours, captured an unusual breaking tidal bore on camera on the river, south of Darwin, on March 24.
Skyring told NT News that he has seen tidal bores several times before in the Daly, but they were just “swells that passed harmlessly under the boat,” not one like this.
“This was the first time I had seen one break,” he said.
On that day, a 5-1/2-foot low tide was recorded at 2.45 p.m., before a 23-foot high tide at 8.40 p.m.