The plot thickens...
Was it yesterday, or two days ago, that we first learned about the heart-wrenching tale of a near-10-foot long female Great White shark that was allegedly netted and dragged to a New Zealand beach to die?
Time and events related to the “man-eating” apex predators, their various escapades, their man-eating etc. are starting to blur but we must not be deterred, we cannot be deterred because then the terrorists win.
But who are the terrorists in this particular New Zealand case? The Great White, who likely man-eats or would man-eat if given the opportunity, or the men, who allegedly netted, dragged, kicked and mocked as she lay there on the sand?
New Zealand’s proud government has just launched an official investigation into the matter and let us go straight to RNZ for first hand accounts.
The juvenile shark was caught in a fishing net off Orewa Beach in northern Auckland yesterday and died despite bystanders’ attempts to help.
Men who were fishing in the surf caught the 2.75m great white in a net and hauled it to shore.
A woman who was at the beach told RNZ that the group seemed intent on keeping the shark and acted in an intimidating way towards those who wanted to return it to the water.
She asked not to be identified.
“They were touching it, rolling it [and] the big fat guy did kick it,” she said.
“It was just disrespectful, and it was probably, like, intimidation as well. And that was the same guy that asked for someone to go get a knife.”
But the woman’s husband and surf lifeguards managed to pull the shark into water deep enough for it to float.
“When my husband and the lifeguards pulled it out, they were just taunting them and kicking water at them and just basically trying to get them not to take it out.”
When the shark didn’t swim off, she says the men who caught it dragged it back to shore after a minute or two.
She said she wished they’d given it more time to recuperate – even though it was probably too late to save it.
The sharks body lies in state in a university freezer.
And like the current perilous ratcheting up of tension between shark and man very much mirrors the situation between The United States of America and Iran. Retaliation expected etc. but will it be symmetrical or will the prehistoric beasts eat 20 of the world’s top 24 professional surfers before the start of their 2020 Championship Tour?
Let’s not speculate wildly. Let’s follow the evidence where it leads and hope for peace in our time.
