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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water:
Big tough man with fishing pole kills giant mako shark by removing it from water!
But you know...it's still pretty scary. The top pic looks like one of the three rig sharks from Jaws. Sharks are fascinating, and even though they can and do kill people, we kill 10,000% more of them than they kill humans. While I hate the idea of films that stir up hatred of sharks, I can't stop watching them.
Nowadays, most of the really big sharks have been fished to death, they simply don't get to live long enough to get really huge. Lots of places protect them, but they still get tangled in fishing nets and in beach nets because they can't swim backwards. It's actually pretty sad. Not to mention that sharks are apex predators and fishing them out means an explosion in seal and sea lion populations. And THAT means that I have to pay more for fish at the grocery store. Okay, I'm getting off on a tangent.
My point is, you can kill a shark with a fishing pole. It's not really even that dangerous.
And while I'm outraged at the idea of anyone killing sharks for sport (including that damn Vic Hislop), I still am fascinated by these kinds of stories.
I mean Damn! Look at the size of that shark!
But you know...it's still pretty scary. The top pic looks like one of the three rig sharks from Jaws. Sharks are fascinating, and even though they can and do kill people, we kill 10,000% more of them than they kill humans. While I hate the idea of films that stir up hatred of sharks, I can't stop watching them.
Nowadays, most of the really big sharks have been fished to death, they simply don't get to live long enough to get really huge. Lots of places protect them, but they still get tangled in fishing nets and in beach nets because they can't swim backwards. It's actually pretty sad. Not to mention that sharks are apex predators and fishing them out means an explosion in seal and sea lion populations. And THAT means that I have to pay more for fish at the grocery store. Okay, I'm getting off on a tangent.
My point is, you can kill a shark with a fishing pole. It's not really even that dangerous.
And while I'm outraged at the idea of anyone killing sharks for sport (including that damn Vic Hislop), I still am fascinated by these kinds of stories.
I mean Damn! Look at the size of that shark!
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Ugh, nice.
And I couldn't agree with you more re: sharks. I think they're the most fascinating animals on the planet. Yes, they're extraordinarily dangerous creatures, but hey, they were here millions of years before we were.
I, too, hate that sharks as seen as "evil" or "so dangerous that they DESERVE to be slaughtered" by lots of (stupid-ish) people.
They're absolutely beautiful fish that serve a huge ecological purpose. They're like a very efficient garbage disposal for the oceans. And we all know what happens when you garbage disposal breaks.
So yay, the guy caught a huge Mako and got his picture in the paper. But hey, at least he FELT BAD about killing her "at the prime of her reproductive cycle."
Enjoy that three grand, buddy.
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A ten-foot Mako is pretty impressive, though. We get a lot of Makos in this area, and they are nowhere near as nice of a shark as a lemon or nurse. They're very agressive animals, and I'll tell you something: if that fisherman hadn't slit the Mako's throat, with the Mako being that big, the fisherman himself might have been killed from being jerked into the water (which I would have found more satisfactory on many levels, but nobody's elected me queen of the universe yet).
Sharks kick ass. I might have to write another shark story now.
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I have an idea in my file about sharks, but I have a few projects I'm more exited about at the moment.
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1) Sharks aren't humans. 99.999% of all life that ever existed on this planet has gone extinct. Extinction is part of nature.
2) Sharks are Perfect with a capital P. They essentially live forever, which means they have quit evolving. Nature has deemed them the perfect creature to live in the environment of the ocean. They deserve our respect because evolutionarily speaking they are millions of years beyond us.
3) The ocean environment has been changed by a naturally occurring event, the emergence of mankind. Sharks, due to the fact that they don't evolve, and breed so infrequently, are no longer fit for survival in the new ocean environment.
4) As [Unknown site tag] pointed out, sharks are helpful in keeping certain animal populations under control. The removal of this predator will impact our environment in countless ways. It is indeed sad that pride is more important to some of us than maintaining our own food supply.
5) In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter at all. Nature will evolve another animal to take the place of the large sharks. I just hope that mankind is around to see it happen.
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