Murder in the High Seas.

Found this article here. Makes a very good point.

THERE appears to be a VERY BIG shark out there.

We know this because it made a snack out of just a BIG shark, a 3m white pointer, off Stradbroke Island last week.

Photos of what was left of the hapless great white, huge chunks of flesh torn from its once streamlined body, flashed around the world.

The size of the bigger shark was estimated to be at least 5m, causing the sphincters of Straddie's surfers to get very watertight indeed.

Shark photos and stories always elicit fascination but this particular photo should have caused cheering. It should have sparked a celebration that an animal that big still roams our seas.

And then it should have caused outrage that Queensland conducts a shark control program of dubious worth that indiscriminantly kills a creature listed as vulnerable under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

If you or I went out there and killed that 3m great white, we would be prosecuted and fined.

But Queensland and New South Wales have exemptions under the Act that allow the killing of these rare and beautiful creatures in the name of keeping swimmers safe.

"The shark control program is a bather-safety initiative and white sharks are an acknowledged threat to bathers," Queensland shark control program manager Tony Ham said. "There is an exemption for the shark control program in the fisheries legislation that allows their take within the program."

This is a great example of why governments are such a rich source of material for comedians.

There are hardly any great whites left. They are protected in Australia. Australia lobbied to have the species listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora to deter the lucrative trade in their jaws and teeth.

The Federal Government has what it calls a White Shark Recovery Plan. And then Queensland is allowed to throw baited drumlines into the sea and kill every peckish white pointer that passes by. What a joke.

The netting protecting Queensland and NSW beaches is a problem too, snaring its share of white pointers. And aren't we all getting a bit sick of seeing whales hooked up in the nets?

Hardly anything is known about white pointers – other than their numbers have crashed around the world, with estimates ranging between 60 and 90 per cent.

The Shark Recovery Plan says this about them: "The listing of the white shark as vulnerable was based on a number of factors, including evidence of a declining population, its life history characteristics (long-lived and low levels of reproduction), limited local distribution and abundance at the time of listing, and still being under pressure from the Australian commercial fishing industry."

There would be few things more terrifying than being attacked by a great white shark, no argument. But the chances of it happening are laughably remote. This is what the International Shark Attack File, which monitors shark-related incidents around the world, has to say about your chances of getting a nip:

"From a statistical standpoint, the chances of dying in this area (the sea) are markedly higher from many other causes (such as drowning and cardiac arrest) than from shark attack," it says.

"Many more people are injured and killed on land while driving to and from the beach than by sharks in the water. Shark attack trauma also is less common than such beach-related injuries as spinal damage, dehydration, jellyfish and stingray stings and sunburn. Indeed, many more sutures are expended on sea shell lacerations of the feet than on shark bites!"

The United States has more shark attacks than anywhere else.

But the ISAF says more people die in the US from sand-hole collapses on the beach than from an encounter with a Noah's Ark.

Certainly, in Queensland, you are more likely to die going for a few quiet drinks at a nightclub than being chomped in half at Straddie.

Perhaps the State Government should introduce a dickhead management program whereby the police are allowed to set mantraps baited with schooners of beer or bottles of Bundy near where potential glassers might lurk. It won't matter if the odd innocent drinker gets caught because the cops will be granted a legislative exemption.

Almost without exception, the people who survive shark attacks wish no ill-will to the creatures and anyone who has seen one while diving or snorkelling can't help but marvel at their sleek grace.

Great whites are the best sharks, the most awesome sharks, the sharks everyone would love to see.

So why are we still killing them when there are so few left?

There should be a moratorium on both netting and drumlines until a non-lethal method of shark management can be devised.

It's a small risk with a big reward.
by Rory Gibson.

He's right- I was in the water with a great white once in PNG and I'll never forget the grace of it and awe it inspired in me. I'm sure other people feel the same way about wild tigers and lions. Clearly we need to save these apex predators- But as they say in Shark water- no one wants to give money to save sharks as they arent fluffy and cuddly enough. Not quite like a pigmy hedgehog.