“I felt sick, because sharks have been around for 400 million years and it’s only in the past 50 years that humans have been doing such a great job of getting rid of them."
Four days ago, a group of sports fishermen from the Port Hacking Game Fishing Club, competing in a contest off Cronulla in Sydney’s south, hooked an almost half-ton Tiger shark as big as their boat.
The men wrestled the fish for almost an hour before killing it and bringing it to shore for the obligatory victory photos.
Tigers aren’t protected in NSW waters so a fisherman can do pretty much what he wants.
Catch ‘em, drag ‘em board, belt ‘em over the head. Take selfies.
Death ain’t pretty, of course.
And, ocean and wildlife lovers lit up, as you can imagine.
“I had two reactions,” University of WA Professor Jessica Meeuwig, who is the director of the uni’s Centre for Marine Futures, told The West Live. “I felt sick, because sharks have been around for 400 million years and it’s only in the past 50 years that humans have been doing such a great job of getting rid of them. And the other thing is, I felt sad, because a lot of recreational fishers truly love the ocean and they love the wildlife that’s in the ocean, and they’re probably not aware that killing animals like that is basically ocean vandalism.”
Two years earlier, a ninety-pound eight year old boy from the same club spent an entire day reeling in a nine-hundred pound Tiger twenty miles off Bondi.
“The majority of sharks that are caught are let go,” he said. “With this one, fisheries will take samples for research, and the jaws will get moulded into in a plaque on the wall for Jayden. The rest is fish and chips.”
He that is without sin, of course, throw your rocks.
Know,
All those pretty little lambs, mewing like the babies they are, throats hacked open, roasted in ovens, presented as happy family meal; the calves torn from mammy at birth for veal, described as “the pale and tender meat of a very sick baby cow who was tortured to death.”
All the happy salmon and tuna we mow through, gasping on the decks of fishing boats or living miserable lives in filthy pens before getting the knife through the head.
The male chicks thrown into slicing machines, useless, mostly for any commercial purpose.
And on and on.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
For me, it’s a sensitivity to all things living. Humans, to me–whether they are unborn or within their lifespans–are living things made in the image of God.
In the Judeo-Christian tradition, God allows for the use of Man the harvesting of animals for food, for raiment, and in the case of ancient (pre-reformed) Israel, for religious sacrifice.
Personally, I wouldn’t have harmed this shark; but that’s just me. I’m not speaking for the rest of the world. But I can speak in arguments.
If those animals are endangered, or harvesting them is illegal or unethical, then lobby for a change in the law to prevent the act. The professor may already have, I’m not sure.
But here in the United States, many people are actively turning around the loose restrictions on human abortion, and rightfully so. Fetal body parts have regularly (clandestinely) been sold in the very face of extant restrictions–and the practice is grossly immoral.
That’s what many humans do.
Maybe, in the discussion (and cry) over the loss of a shark, we as a species can include a discussion of the mistreatment of our own. A shameful mistreatment of our babies. A life beginning at cenception.
All things living are precious.
So…I suppose you think being a vegetarian is the answer. What about the pool little abused neglected tiny insects that are killed processing non animal foods? Are you saying you feel sad for the sharks, but don’t feel bad for the insects? What about when you wash your hands to kill bacteria? Ya know…bacteria just might be the best living thing you ever knew if you got to know them. If you don’t like shark meat, don’t eat it…and try examining more closely life that is killed to produce what you eat. Even if you eat shit…poor littleifeforms are killed. We won’t even talk about how much life is killed by our feet when we walk anyplace. Pretty weird how all you shark protectors are ok knowing sharks kill people. Human Lives Matter.
Yes, professor, I feel the same way–when over 30 million perfectly-innocent babies have been aborted in the same 50 year period. Humans have gotten really good at that, wouldn’t you agree?
But humans haven’t been around as long as the ancient sharks. Don’t you think humans deserve the same level of consideration? Or are you just going to pivot when the question is asked?
Here’s your chance to prove that you’re not a hypocrite.
John
San Diego, CA
Middle aged white males talking abortion is always a good look.
Way to go, Brendon. Headed straight for the ad hominem attack about me being a White male. Wow, never in a million years would I think that a liberal would go there.
And the assumption you are a liberal? Because that’s the first thing liberals do in a discussion. I’m playing the odds.
And BTW, there are plenty of White, middle-aged male who are for abortion. (But it’s people of color who take the brunt of the outcomes. I think the term is called “disparate impact,” if I’m not mistaken.)
Anyway, I’m just trying to understand how some people can be sensitive to one form of life, and be completely insensitive (on a grand scale) to another.
I don’t kill animals. I don’t even eat them. I wouldn’t have taken this shark, either. It’s their domain, and their ecosystem.
So what does being White have to do with anything, anyway?
Just curious.
From your avatar, you look just as White as I am. Got a little self-loathing going on under the surface, there, Brenden?
I think you stumbled into the wrong website! And yes, I am a self loathing (near?) middle aged white male! And proud to wear my self loathing on my perfectly coifed sleeve!
Good luck with that, moving forward.
So what is your strategy? Remaining silent, or being a spectacle? Being self-loathing and remaing high-profile is both buffoonish and oxymoronic, at the same time.
You only make a ridiculous spectacle of yourself.
Who knows: in the grand scheme of things, maybe this shark was self-loathing and somebody carted it away?
Enough of your ridiculousness. Have a good life. It’s out there. Do yourself a favor, and get a girlfriend already.
I am sure those who feel sorry for the poor monster Galeocerdous cuvieri old and too slow tocatch fish slow in last stages of life ARE NOT serious divers.
This article is dumb and misguided. This kind of sport fishing is not the problem. Why don’t you go after the real problem which is China’s shark fin soup obsession. Idiot
Thanks for putting some effort into your writing Derek, Chaz has been phoning it in lately.
Nice dose of reality dez
what do they do with it after taking photos back at the dock? serious question.
I was going to say that, yes, it is a shame that such a magnificent beast such as this was killed for sport, but the end of the article changed everything. Please describe in the same colorful language exactly what the victims of this exact shark felt as he mowed through their ranks. He didn’t shop at the local garden for food. He ate flesh and blood, and if you’ve ever watched a NatGeo documentary, animals are still alive while they’re being munched on…
Can’t ask them bro, they all dead
That didn’t stop the author from describing what people do to animals… Why should it stop writing what animals do to animals (ie nature)?
Cheeken anda cow?! Cheeken anda cow?!
I’m not saying some vegans aren’t a little overbearing, but it will eventually just become common history that our meat eating basically fucked us all, and obviously our insidious need to combustion engines, in the meantime we can just tell our kids how shit used to be
This story triggered me. I spent 23 years as a vego until a couple years ago. I still feel conflicted at times. I don’t like seeing these fisho jocks with that big beast on board but I do like steak. Bogan tigers don’t really hit anyone here as opposed to the grumps in Hawaii eh?
Meat is Murder
fuck off morrisey…
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Penis shaped parking and the whale tank is way too small!
I cry every time I eat vegemite knowing that poor bit of yeast will never replicate again.
You fucking beast.
Don’t feel too bad. They use the leftover yeast from the brewing process from the major breweries around Australia. Even West End, judging by the taste of it.
Very antidepressant
Shark’s have it lucky, and featured in trophy photos! https://www.youtube.com/wat…
So how were those earthquakes yesterday? Quite the cluster of big ass quakes.
We had 7.8 in my town in 2018 so not phased by much these days.
I was up at 2 and felt the first one. Long roller style. The other 2 were nothing here.
Geez, i hope they had their noise cancelling headphones on.
Thats awful, but being a typical hypocritical human, i’ll now go bet on what horse with weights in the saddle will run faster while being kicked n whipped.
If we watch it live at the track we get dressed up for it too!
Fuck man.. that was brutal. I couldn’t watch.
turtles rejoice!
Shouldn’t we be saying
Hupersons not hu mans?
Orcas mostly love a good prank. I’m also pretty sure that they long ago figured out, and have since passed on the tale of caution, that eating people is just begging for a bad case of atomic diarrhea. But, they sure are pranky pranksters.
early on in the internet, i remember a video of horrible quality at a sandbar in Canada, where a young teenager was up to his chest swimming in a bay with the family videoing grainy footage. and an orca out of no where came at him like a seal on the beach, the bubble of water over the nose.. only to stop on a dime feet before the kid, realizing that it was a human not a seal. pretty amazing sequence.. I cannot find it anywhere been searching for a long time.. like the movie about financing surf boats with drugs
See, I knew tales of caution had been passed.
Orca Grannie: “You see junior, despite what your dumbass friends may think, Canadians DO NOT in fact taste like maple syrup. In fact, the only thing syrup-y about humans is the atomic diarrhea they give you. I kid you not, “explosive” does not begin to capture it. You know how whale calls can be heard super far away. No shit! Or much shit, just no bullshit. Orcas in Antarctica say that whenever you hear an atomic diarrhea ring, a Canadian got their wings.”