A large and terrifying tiger shark has been caught off the east coast of Australia near the popular beach resort of Byron Bay.
Good.
Killer sharks of this magnitude have no business anywhere where swimmers and surfers congregate and the tiger is the world’s second- or third-deadliest, depending on where you rank the bull which is similarly voracious and evil. It’s time the bastards were taught a lesson they won’t forget.
But you’re not supposed to say this any more, are you? I note that in the widespread media coverage it has received – and why not? everyone loves a good shark story – there’s the subtle implication that the fishermen who caught it did a bad thing. The people responsible are being very cagey about the exact circumstances of the shark’s demise. Might it even – sob! – have been caught on a wicked drum line?
Sorry. Don’t care. Nor, I suspect – were he still alive – would the hapless Japanese surfer who was taken in the area (probably by a great white) in February.
Needless to say, though, the bleeding hearts are up in arms. Some sample comments on the interweb:
Why couldn’t it just be left alone? Why did it have to die??? You know, just because the number of shark incidents have increased, it doesn’t mean anything except that humans are swimming and entering THEIR home; where they eat and bear their young! What pompous arrogant so-and-sos for thinking humans rule the planet! I am so sick and embarrassed to be a human…on so many levels!
“Hey look, a rare specimen! Let’s kill it!” – humans
Oh yeah, let’s teach that shark a lesson in morality. That always works . I’ll bet he was tremendously old, and I see no damned reason he was killed. Sometimes I’m embarrassed to be human.
I must say that I too feel saddened seeing humanity doing such harmful things to our nature, what wasn’t our from the beginning and never will be. But I also have to say that this is what happens when a race like us gets so majestic and dominant. Because in the end we are all human beings, and by nature we are greedy and always on the hunt for money. I can understand that people kill sharks for money, even if it’s not by your definition “human” to do it. What really is a “human” thing to do? What comes last in our mind and thinking is unfortunately this planet’s wellbeing which truly sucks.
I am scared to death of sharks, but this is the saddest thing I have seen in long time. Look at the size of that shark – it has been alive for a very long time. We killed it for what? Doing what a shark does; eat to survive. Everyone that swims in the ocean (ESPECIALLY in Australia) is taking a risk in losing their life to a shark or other sea predator. If you don’t like it, stay out of the water. Stay out of their home. Stop killing innocent creatures for nothing. Soon we won’t have sharks because we are selfish. Human beings must own everything. The ocean as our own personal swimming pool… shame on us.
But it could have been worse. Much, much worse. Imagine if the shark had had a cute name…