Image courtesy: Shark Gallery

You may have read about the South African teenagers that killed a pregnant Bull Shark a couple of days ago. They were proud of themselves and believed they had achieved something truly epic, displaying their prize for all to see. It must have come as some surprise to them then when forums started buzzing with rage at what a couple of utter wangtards these kids are for doing what they did.

Everybody blames the Jaws films for putting them in the wrong light, but our narrow minded belief that sharks are all evil and must die has been around far longer. It says in the book Coral Reef Fishes, that most sharks are harmless unless molested. Well I’ve had the pleasure of watching a Shark get molested (in the interest of marine research) and even then nothing happened.

The South African kids weren’t the only ones getting involved this month, with some nob calling himself ‘Captain Bucky Dennis’ catching a pregnant Hammerhead in the Gulf of Mexico for the sake of breaking a record. Good one Bucky, the Hammerhead population in the Gulf of Mexico has been depleted by 75-90%, let’s screw it up a little bit more.

The good news is, people are rightly changing their views and realising that Sharks are vital to the ecosystems of our oceans and need protecting, not attacking. Still, there are a few forum fanciers out there that think otherwise.