Nth NSW sharks. Can they p!ss off already?

[Cranked]

Great stuff Skip. So that's three of us. I'm up for a get-together anytime.

[swvic]

Wouldn't mind if crew read my latest Swellnet piece on the ethics of shark control.

Had a read. Appreciate its even reasoning, but questioned the 45% interaction stat. Then I thought, fcuk, I've been eyeballed at very close range by a big white and been bumped a few times so maybe it's correct

Pretty sure the bumps were seven gillers which were all at Japs or the Flume in Warrnambool. The eyeball was at Cactus

[steve shearer]

Yeah, it's social science so take it with a grain of salt.

Even if half those people were bullshitting, 20% is a massive number.

[alakaboo]

Wouldn't mind if crew read my latest Swellnet piece on the ethics of shark control.

Decent article Steve, in need of a little editorial review for mine. Not the content, just a few grammatical points.

I would've liked a bit more of the aquatic ape theory.

I don't know that ethics is really the right word, if asked directly I don't think even the biggest vegan evangelist would choose a shark over a loved one.

I think what you're really exploring is the risk calculus, and the fact that it seems like the human health risk imperative now outweighs the conservation objectives. I'd agree, and I say that as someone who thinks sharks, billfish and tuna are the pinnacle of evolutionary design and critical components of marine ecosystems.

[steve shearer]

Cheers Boo.

I love the aquatic ape theory but the evidence for it seems a bit thin and refutable.

I did have a different title to start with.

[alakaboo]

I love the aquatic ape theory but the evidence for it seems a bit thin and refutable.

That's why I like to see it.

[Beanpole]

Wouldn't mind if crew read my latest Swellnet piece on the ethics of shark control.

Decent article Steve, in need of a little editorial review for mine. Not the content, just a few grammatical points.

I would've liked a bit more of the aquatic ape theory.

I don't know that ethics is really the right word, if asked directly I don't think even the biggest vegan evangelist would choose a shark over a loved one.

I think what you're really exploring is the risk calculus, and the fact that it seems like the human health risk imperative now outweighs the conservation objectives. I'd agree, and I say that as someone who thinks sharks, billfish and tuna are the pinnacle of evolutionary design and critical components of marine ecosystems.

Dare we say…….Heuristics?

[godsavetheking]

Being in the sea for 99% of users (probably more) is very much optional recreation. We don’t ‘share the sea’ in the way that people who live next door to land predators share territory. Indeed, many people choose never to go in the sea and their lives appear little different to ours. So the whole, it’s part of our heritage argument seems a bit flimsy. On the other hand, we kill lots of animals all the time. Placing the shark above those simply because it has better PR (trophic cascade nonsense, anyone?) feels equally ridiculous.

[Beanpole]

I think the argument is more about bycatch. The argument remains the same though.

[steve shearer]

Being in the sea for 99% of users (probably more) is very much optional recreation. We don’t ‘share the sea’ in the way that people who live next door to land predators share territory.

Absolute bollocks mate.

There's way more coastline, estuaries, open ocean which is cohabited by humans and sharks then there is by lions, tigers etc etc.

Not to mention Boo's Aquatic Ape hypothesis.

Look, I accept for your average UK resident the sea means tying a hankie on your head once a year and paddling your fat, white feet in a cold, green lifeless sea.

Thats the anomaly, not the norm.

Everything apart from breathing, drinking, eating and fcuking is "optional".

Human beings don't work like that though.

[godsavetheking]

If you don’t want a shark to bite you, don’t go in the water. It really is as simple as that

[steve shearer]

Jeezuz, not that old chestnut again.

sigh.

There's always one simpleton ready to trot out the Guardian line.

[godsavetheking]

You haven’t come close to providing a rational argument against it though. Humans don’t cohabit oceans, we use them for recreation. There is always the choice to completely avoid the apex predator in a way that a village living next to a tiger doesn’t have

[crabmeat thompson]

the king is wayyyyy ahead on points here.

it's a massacre.

[crabmeat thompson]

the only way shearer can resuscitate himself here is to post a photo of his cock draped in a cronulla sharks scarf.

[steve shearer]

You haven’t come close to providing a rational argument against it though. Humans don’t cohabit oceans, we use them for recreation.

eh?

Humans have cohabited the inshore zone as well as used oceans for fishing, migration, etc etc for millennia.

It's one of the most easily established facts in the argument and one of the most facile and oft repeated myths we face.

[Drailed]

Fuck, 10 turtles and a few other big fish so a city of nearly 5million can play safely in the ocean. As if you wouldnt.

[Beanpole]