Post by tekmac on Jun 10, 2005 11:57:02 GMT -5
Interesting theories some people come up with. What kind of jackass logic is that?
Shark hunters bay for blood
Gavin du Venage in Cape Town
June 10, 2005
THE man-eating shark everyone is looking for is, for once, easy to distinguish from other great whites that patrol the waters off South Africa.
Embedded in its flesh is the spear fired at it in a last, desperate attempt to fend off death seconds before it swallowed the young man whole, leaving nothing but the tattered remains of his wetsuit.
This week fishermen spotted the 6m shark that took 22-year-old student Henri Murray as he and a friend spearfished off the Cape Town coast. The news that the shark is still in the area off pristine swimming beaches is likely to cause a wild hunt for the creature as some humans seek revenge.
"If you stick a grenade down its throat you send a clear message to the sharks - this is not a safe place to hunt," says Godfrey Mocke, of the Swimsafe Project in Cape Town.
"These beaches are our holy ground and the sharks are being lured here by cage-dive operators and nature documentary-makers who 'chum' the water (place blood and offal in the water). Sharks are beginning to think humans are easy prey."
Mocke is convinced that once people begin killing sharks that come close to the beaches, the great whites will stop killing people.
"Animals have ways of communicating and we should teach them to respect our territory," he says.
Frenzied anti-shark hunts are frequent after such attacks. In the past two years 19 attacks have taken place off the South African coast, four of them fatal. An elderly woman was killed by a great white off Fishhoek beach last year, with the resulting public hysteria leading to near-deserted beaches and demands to slaughter anything that showed a dorsal fin above the water.
Local newspapers were flooded with letters from people who wanted the navy to launch anti-shark patrols; one reader wrote to the Cape Times to suggest the air force bomb any suspicious-looking shapes in the water.
When a cult group sacrificed a sheep on a beach at Durban this year, there were threats to lynch them, because it was feared blood spilled into the water would draw sharks.
Mr Murray's parents have pleaded that the shark be left alone, but their call is unlikely to have much effect on the growing bloodlust among illegal would-be hunters.
"When I am out at sea, who is going to catch me?" says Albert van Rooyen, a Cape Town sport fisherman. "My kids swim in this sea so I want to kill that thing before it takes someone else. I don't care what the Government says. If they want to protect sharks, they should send a few MPs out for a swim, then we'll see what tune they are singing."
Not everyone supports the hunt. "It's their territory. It's like wandering around Kruger Park with a piece of meat tied around your neck," says Robin de Kock, general manager of sports body Surfing South Africa. "Leave the sharks alone and hope they do the same."
Shark hunters bay for blood
Gavin du Venage in Cape Town
June 10, 2005
THE man-eating shark everyone is looking for is, for once, easy to distinguish from other great whites that patrol the waters off South Africa.
Embedded in its flesh is the spear fired at it in a last, desperate attempt to fend off death seconds before it swallowed the young man whole, leaving nothing but the tattered remains of his wetsuit.
This week fishermen spotted the 6m shark that took 22-year-old student Henri Murray as he and a friend spearfished off the Cape Town coast. The news that the shark is still in the area off pristine swimming beaches is likely to cause a wild hunt for the creature as some humans seek revenge.
"If you stick a grenade down its throat you send a clear message to the sharks - this is not a safe place to hunt," says Godfrey Mocke, of the Swimsafe Project in Cape Town.
"These beaches are our holy ground and the sharks are being lured here by cage-dive operators and nature documentary-makers who 'chum' the water (place blood and offal in the water). Sharks are beginning to think humans are easy prey."
Mocke is convinced that once people begin killing sharks that come close to the beaches, the great whites will stop killing people.
"Animals have ways of communicating and we should teach them to respect our territory," he says.
Frenzied anti-shark hunts are frequent after such attacks. In the past two years 19 attacks have taken place off the South African coast, four of them fatal. An elderly woman was killed by a great white off Fishhoek beach last year, with the resulting public hysteria leading to near-deserted beaches and demands to slaughter anything that showed a dorsal fin above the water.
Local newspapers were flooded with letters from people who wanted the navy to launch anti-shark patrols; one reader wrote to the Cape Times to suggest the air force bomb any suspicious-looking shapes in the water.
When a cult group sacrificed a sheep on a beach at Durban this year, there were threats to lynch them, because it was feared blood spilled into the water would draw sharks.
Mr Murray's parents have pleaded that the shark be left alone, but their call is unlikely to have much effect on the growing bloodlust among illegal would-be hunters.
"When I am out at sea, who is going to catch me?" says Albert van Rooyen, a Cape Town sport fisherman. "My kids swim in this sea so I want to kill that thing before it takes someone else. I don't care what the Government says. If they want to protect sharks, they should send a few MPs out for a swim, then we'll see what tune they are singing."
Not everyone supports the hunt. "It's their territory. It's like wandering around Kruger Park with a piece of meat tied around your neck," says Robin de Kock, general manager of sports body Surfing South Africa. "Leave the sharks alone and hope they do the same."