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Just curious the members from Australia's view on this. Here's my view.
It's a sad state of morality that shark netting beaches is controversial in Australia. I also find is patently absurd the new zealand government considers sharks more important than people and has banned fishing of white sharks without any proof of them being endangered. In fact their population is exploding.
I think it's fantastic they're culling sharks. People come before fish. It's complete nonsense that if you lose one or two shark species the entire ecosystem of the ocean will collapse. Absolutely laughable. Most species that have lived on earth have become extinct. Loosing a single "apex" predator you call it will absolutely not cause a collapse. And the three big one's that attack people aren't even endangered. And tiger and bull sharks aren't even endangered. And you can't prove the white shark is either. Numbers are clearly exploding. Tuna/cod are JUST AS vital to the ecosystem as well. Maybe we shouldn't be allowed to fish for them People who are into shark conservation are talking about "murdering" sharks. IT'S A FISH! Are you murdering a tuna when you fish for one? WTF?! Has society completely lost it?
Oh and if I hear one more person say it's "the shark's home" when talking about the ocean I will vomit. The land you built your house on belongs to the moles, mice under that insane logic that's been programmed into you by years of propaganda on the discover channel ect. We as surfers, swimmers use less than 1% of the ocean for our recreational activities and have every right to do that as safely as possible. It doesn't "belong" to sharks anymore than my front yard belongs to grizzly bears. This is just a human hating viewpoint.
I say screw the 3 really dangerous species of sharks and lets do our best to wipe them out.(Limited culling would NEVER wipe them out anyway. It's just a small dent like a controlled hunt of any abundant animal) We will still have 1000 other types of non dangerous sharks. Serial killers of the ocean. Dumb as a goldfish with no emotions, unlike a dog. It's a sad state of affairs when a stupid fish is considered more important than a human being. Oh and I'm also sick of these meaningless statistics about lightning strikes. Take a population of surfers that surf 5 days a week for 30 years in a shark infested area and compare the number of them killed by sharks to lightning. It's all about exposure to the risk and if the area of water your in carries a high risk. Almost zero current risk in NJ, usa for example. You can't compare that to South Africa though. Just research the renunion island shark attacks to see the truth. Over a dozen in a few year with barely any people entering the water. They banned surfing/swimming there for a while until they did a cull of bullsharks and tigers. . Maybe you shark lovers just HATE people? We should wipe out the great white. It would be great. But they're not even doing that. Just catching a few to reduce risk. A little culling don't go far enough.
I'm also sick and tired of people pretending these animals(ESPECIALLY the bull/tiger shark) are threatened. These are the sharks responsible in reunion island for ALL the attacks. Not a GW like in Australia. Absolute nonsense and lies just like the silly meaningless statistics about lightning. All designed to unethically trick people. With all these shark infested waters the manipulators still manage to convince people that these animals are endangered. Absolute rubbish.
I believe a person's life is more important than a shark. They don't leave us alone so why should we leave them alone? Do you leave all fish alone? Do you value a sword fish, which is a large predatory fish, more than a human? There's many more bull/tiger sharks than many other types of predatory fish. Would you sacrifice your child's life for a few sharks? That's someone's family member that is being torn to pieces. I think it's disgusting. We should kill a few sharks. Hell make it a sport fishing competition. It would be great.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe90
Controlling fear is a part of surfing. If you're going to be worrying about sharks all the time, stay on the beach, where you belong.
What about people on bodyboards or people who go swimming?
I guess all the children should stay on the beach. It's of course the sharks territory right? Better tear down your house. It belongs to the deer You do realize the shark conservationist who don't surf would love it if people never entered the water and surfing was banned.
Is being scared ****less part of that equation as well?
Let's get get real. Like your average surfer is charging mavericks or something. Knee to head high stuff. And no severe fear of being cut in half by a shark is not part of it. I've never been afraid like that. Having fun is the point. Unless your obsessed with being core, which is pretty sad in of itself. You just think that it "will never happen to me". Comparing getting caught inside on big outside set to a GW shark attack is laughable.
This is a values question. Period. I feel savings a lot of lives in high risk areas is worth the lives of a few stupid fish. Period. It's really sad what's happening to the morals of people when dogs and sharks become more important than a human being. A lack of compassion for people and "humans are bad" is quite disturbing.
question for you Joe:
Do you feel that a human life is more important than a shark's life?
Last edited by mikelizard860; 09-06-2014 at 02:53 PM..
It's not a question of a human life vs a shark life. Just accept the risks that come with being in the sea much in the way you accept the risk of driving, without even a second thought.
If you understood the role of sharks in the ecosystem, I doubt you'd be asking this question.
Just curious the members from Australia's view on this. Here's my view.
It's a sad state of morality that shark netting beaches is controversial in Australia. I also find is patently absurd the new zealand government considers sharks more important than people and has banned fishing of white sharks without any proof of them being endangered. In fact their population is exploding.
I think it's fantastic they're culling sharks. People come before fish. It's complete nonsense that if you lose one or two shark species the entire ecosystem of the ocean will collapse. Absolutely laughable. Most species that have lived on earth have become extinct. Loosing a single "apex" predator you call it will absolutely not cause a collapse. And the three big one's that attack people aren't even endangered. And tiger and bull sharks aren't even endangered. And you can't prove the white shark is either. Numbers are clearly exploding. Tuna/cod are JUST AS vital to the ecosystem as well. Maybe we shouldn't be allowed to fish for them People who are into shark conservation are talking about "murdering" sharks. IT'S A FISH! Are you murdering a tuna when you fish for one? WTF?! Has society completely lost it?
Oh and if I hear one more person say it's "the shark's home" when talking about the ocean I will vomit. The land you built your house on belongs to the moles, mice under that insane logic that's been programmed into you by years of propaganda on the discover channel ect. We as surfers, swimmers use less than 1% of the ocean for our recreational activities and have every right to do that as safely as possible. It doesn't "belong" to sharks anymore than my front yard belongs to grizzly bears. This is just a human hating viewpoint.
I say screw the 3 really dangerous species of sharks and lets do our best to wipe them out.(Limited culling would NEVER wipe them out anyway. It's just a small dent like a controlled hunt of any abundant animal) We will still have 1000 other types of non dangerous sharks. Serial killers of the ocean. Dumb as a goldfish with no emotions, unlike a dog. It's a sad state of affairs when a stupid fish is considered more important than a human being. Oh and I'm also sick of these meaningless statistics about lightning strikes. Take a population of surfers that surf 5 days a week for 30 years in a shark infested area and compare the number of them killed by sharks to lightning. It's all about exposure to the risk and if the area of water your in carries a high risk. Almost zero current risk in NJ, usa for example. You can't compare that to South Africa though. Just research the renunion island shark attacks to see the truth. Over a dozen in a few year with barely any people entering the water. They banned surfing/swimming there for a while until they did a cull of bullsharks and tigers. . Maybe you shark lovers just HATE people? We should wipe out the great white. It would be great. But they're not even doing that. Just catching a few to reduce risk. A little culling don't go far enough.
I'm also sick and tired of people pretending these animals(ESPECIALLY the bull/tiger shark) are threatened. These are the sharks responsible in reunion island for ALL the attacks. Not a GW like in Australia. Absolute nonsense and lies just like the silly meaningless statistics about lightning. All designed to unethically trick people. With all these shark infested waters the manipulators still manage to convince people that these animals are endangered. Absolute rubbish.
Okay. You do know we don't talk about apex predators these days? Keystone species and keystone predators is where the science is at. There is no "food chain" but complex food webs and trophic levels. Take out a keystone species at your peril, it's not like we're in the middle of the 6th mass extinction or anything.
It's not a question of a human life vs a shark life. Just accept the risks that come with being in the sea much in the way you accept the risk of driving, without even a second thought.
If you understood the role of sharks in the ecosystem, I doubt you'd be asking this question.
We have seat belts and speed limits for reasons. We do what we can do lower risk. This is EASY to lower risk of shark attacks. Kill them. Done. Can't really compare it to driving.
It absolutely is a question of human life vs shark life. Can you answer the question? Do you value people over sharks? We wiped out many species before in many areas and nature survived just fine. Eastern cougar being an example. But now there population is again explopding. Same with seals in northeastern U.S. atlantic after 1972 marine mammal protection act.
It's all b.s. this balance crap. I'm more worried about pollution and global warming and not because it will wipe out polar bears. We are already messing with the ecosystem by fishing ANY fish. It's fine. It's really not a big deal. There's something called a bag limit so they don't go extinct. You can do population control on a pest species without the ecosystem collapsing. It's like saying you can't hunt any black bears or you will destroy the ecosystem. One day there will be no more GW sharks WITHOUT our intervention. Most species have gone extinct that live on this planet. It's didn't collapse the entire planet. If you wiped out EVERY single bull shark I can assure you that the planet will be fine. LOL Of couse doing a limited cull on sharks in a high risk area would NEVER have the effect of wiping out the species anyway.
Okay. You do know we don't talk about apex predators these days? Keystone species and keystone predators is where the science is at. There is no "food chain" but complex food webs and trophic levels. .
I don't care what modern conservationist terms are. They have an agenda and LIE/MANIPULATE all the time. They've had decades of "documentary" experience to get the job done. It's always the same....the GW shark spits people out....ummm isn't that their hunting strategy in many areas? Of course they prefer fattier victims, but what difference does it make. You're already bitten in half. One bite, the leave animal to die? What about tiger sharks. They eat tires. I'm sure they're just fine eating people. Already broke that silly lightning statistic. They also love to blame the victim. I want to vomit every time I watch their propaganda. It used to be even worse a decade ago on the discovery channel before it went mainstream. They'd outright lie about species being endangered. Very dangerous thing to do crying wolf like that when there are actual species seriously at risk of extinction like the Gorilla.
I'd like to see one of these conservationsts go water skiing at seal island....you know because risk of shark attack is so low what do they have to worry about
Last edited by mikelizard860; 09-06-2014 at 04:30 PM..
We have seat belts and speed limits for reasons. We do what we can do lower risk. This is EASY to lower risk of shark attacks. Kill them. Done. Can't really compare it to driving.
It absolutely is a question of human life vs shark life. Can you answer the question? Do you value people over sharks? We wiped out many species before in many areas and nature survived just fine. Eastern cougar being an example. But now there population is again explopding. Same with seals in northeastern U.S. atlantic after 1972 marine mammal protection act.
It's all b.s. this balance crap. I'm more worried about pollution and global warming and not because it will wipe out polar bears. We are already messing with the ecosystem by fishing ANY fish. It's fine. It's really not a big deal. There's something called a bag limit so they don't go extinct. You can do population control on a pest species without the ecosystem collapsing. It's like saying you can't hunt any black bears or you will destroy the ecosystem. One day there will be no more GW sharks WITHOUT our intervention. Most species have gone extinct that live on this planet. It's didn't collapse the entire planet. If you wiped out EVERY single bull shark I can assure you that the planet will be fine. LOL Of couse doing a limited cull on sharks in a high risk area would NEVER have the effect of wiping out the species anyway.
Enough with the cotton wool stuff. Stop living in fear.
Your logic is faulty and incoherent. Get some learnin inta ya!
I can see an argument for netting in certain areas, but your talk is way out of proportion.
NSW beaches are netted from Wollongong to Newcastle, no surprises as this includes Sydney and the Central Coast, and hence the biggest population base in the state and country.
Netting has been extremely effective, there have been no fatal shark attacks in over 1/2 a century in this region. I have no problem with this as it is effective.
The sharks have free reign beyond this, so a fair compromise has been reached.
The last 2 fatal shark attacks in NSW were in Tathra (far south coast) by a Great White, and a body boarder just north of Coffs Harbour by a Tiger shark - both last summer. If you want to swim and surf in remote areas like these, then that you do so at your own risk, which I don't have a problem with.
I believe a person's life is more important than a shark. They don't leave us alone so why should we leave them alone?
Around 100 MILLION sharks are killed by humans every year, they are being hunted to extinction while the human population is exploding.
In 2013 there were around 10 human deaths from shark attacks world wide.
Its all about risk perception, you are FAR more likely to die in a car accidence on the way to the beach than you are from a shark attack surfing, lets kill the cars and save 1000's of lives in Aus every year!
Why don't we ban cars?, you accept the risk.
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People who are into shark conservation are talking about "murdering" sharks. IT'S A FISH! Are you murdering a tuna when you fish for one? WTF?! Has society completely lost it?
