Heavy equipment was brought in to shift the carcass. Photo: Cortlan Bennett

The WA government has been accused of letting "20 tonnes of shark bait drift onto one of Perth's most popular beaches" in a stinging attack by the opposition.

Labor spokesman for Fisheries Dave Kelly said the government failed to act earlier to deal with the carcass of a humpback whale that drifted in waters off Perth before it washed up on Scarborough Beach on Monday.

Whale carcass removal from Scarborough Beach Photo: Ingrid Cowan

Mr Kelly directed his criticism to Colin Barnett as the Premier had "taken on shark mitigation as a responsibility."

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"While some of the things we've seen at Scarborough beach have been quite comical over the last couple of days and it certainly has been an interesting spectacle, there is actually a quite serious side of what's happens at Scarborough beach, we've effectively had 20 tonnes of shark bait allowed to drift onto one of Perth's most popular beaches," he said.

Mr Kelly added that this was not the first time a whale carcass has floated in metropolitan waters before becoming beached so the government "could not say it was an unexpected occurrence."

"In October last year a shark carcass washed onto Whitfords Beach, the minister at the time, Troy Buswell said it would have made more sense to tow the carcass offshore and that he would speak to his Commonwealth colleagues to make sure that whatever Commonwealth exemptions needed to be in place, they would be in place in the future," he said.

"Twelve months later it appears as if nothing has happened."

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WA government allowed 'tonnes of shark bait to float onto beach'