Fatal Shark Attacks Celebrated as “Nature Fighting Back” – The Dark Side of Environmental Extremism

Shark attacks are “nature’s way of culling too many humans on this planet."

The debate surrounding the use of shark nets in New South Wales provides a real-world example of a Carnivalesque inversion of hierarchies.

The concept, developed by Mikhail Bakhtin, involves the suspension and reversal of established social, moral, and political hierarchies. In the context of shark attacks, the official hierarchy is the traditional view that human safety is paramount.

According to this tradition, the Shark Meshing Program (SMP) is justified by the sanctity of human life, the state’s responsibility for public safety, and the belief that dangerous sharks are expendable.

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This official hierarchy is inverted by shark conservationists, whose rhetoric can be likened to the antics of a carnival crowd. Charged with emotion, activists insist that mankind is the real monster, and that sharks are the actual victims, along with other innocent sea creatures caught in shark nets.

This inversion of the official doctrine is reminiscent of the mock crowning and decrowning of a King; an age-old ritual that evokes a profound sense of liberation from authority figures. Bakhtin explains that the crowning and decrowning ritual expresses the joyful relativity of all authority, and the creative power of renewal. However, shark attacks are not playacting.

The personal gratification gained through decrowning mankind comes at enormous cost to shark attack victims and their families. These are real people, not actors performing a ritual.

Carnivals allow people to let off steam from time to time. It is a joyous recalibration of the human spirit. The tragic deaths and permanent injuries caused by shark attacks completely undermine the Carnivalesque sentiment of renewal.

As Nietzsche warned, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”

The inversion of traditional hierarchies has popular appeal. However, the arguments are not especially sound.

Recreation is not a frivolous activity. Surfing culture necessarily overlaps with the “shark’s domain”, a loaded expression that subordinates the surfing lifestyle to the political aspirations of the environmental movement.

Shark nets do not threaten the population of sharks or the stability of marine ecosystems. The number of sharks and the quantity of bycatch is insignificant compared to commercial fishing.

Of course, it is distressing to see innocent creatures caught in shark nets. However, shark attacks are deeply traumatic events that not only impact victims, but also their friends and loved ones, bystanders, first responders, and the broader community. It is just too high a price to pay for the vain satisfaction of siding with nature against mankind.

Unfortunately, non-lethal shark mitigation measures are inadequate, despite all the hype. The government knows that the “dual objective” of protecting people and sharks is fanciful. However, they are afraid of upsetting the mob, who hold everyone to ransom, by shaming, ridiculing, and haranguing anyone who deviates from their emotion driven agenda.

Since sharks can get around the nets, the SMP is denounced as ineffective, and ridiculed for providing a false sense of security. However, this is a straw man argument, since the purpose of shark nets is to alter shark behaviour, so that they avoid the area. Although sharks can get around the nets, there are fewer sharks in the area, which means fewer shark attacks.

The inversion of the traditional hierarchy is inherently anti-human. Some environmentalists openly celebrate fatal shark attacks as nature fighting back against mankind.

A Facebook post decrying the decision to cull sharks in Western Australia elicited a storm of condemnation, including four comments suggesting that fatal shark attacks are “nature’s way of culling too many humans on this planet”, “because it’s nature’s will”, that “nature will regulate both sharks and people” and it’s just “nature getting its own back after all the destruction we have done to this world”.

The radical ecology movement, Earth First!, promotes this fanciful idea, which is ironic, since it imitates the vengeful God of the Old Testament.

Apparently, environmentalists achieve salvation through sustainability, even when the cost is imposed on others.

Please sign the petition to extend shark nets north of Newcastle and south of Wollongong. If we reach 500 signatures, the minister is required to provide a formal response.