Shark attacks to be rebranded 'encounters' by activists to help predator's deadly image

I'd love to read that link, but it requires you to agree to have them place cookies on your computer, which means more annoying ads, and who knows what compromises to your privacy. I never click on any links that ask for permission to place cookies.

However, I'll look for the story on my own. Maybe it's somewhere else out there, without the cookies.
 
This is a real worry the way people are so fragile and offended by nothing these days...and willing because of their fragile issues topotentially ruin someone else's life...


Examples...from todays' news

A man has been landed with a police record for ‘racial hatred’ for whistling the Bob The Builder theme tune at his neighbour.

Officers in Bedfordshire recorded the incident as a non-crime hate incident, which will remain on file for six years and could be disclosed to prospective employers.

Few other details about the ‘crime’ are known, but it is just one of the bizarre cases unearthed by an investigation into the controversial practice of recording ‘hate incidents’ even if no law has been broken.

.....

Others include a swimming teacher in West Yorkshire given a police record after a child’s mother claimed her son had been allowed to bang his head against the side of the pool ‘due to his ethnicity’, and a gay man who alleged he had been ripped off by a drug dealer because of his sexuality.

In Norfolk, a Portuguese national said an unknown person had deliberately left a burger bun on their driveway ‘due to their ethnicity’.

Under the Hate Crime Operational Guidelines, adopted in 2014, forces are required to record any actions deemed to be motivated by an element of hate, even if there is no evidence to prove them.

In total, 10,840 non-crime hate incidents were logged last year, bringing the total in the past five years to 120,000 – but Freedom of Information requests sent to 43 police forces in England and Wales failed to identify a single crime that had been solved as a result.

Campaigners have called for the ‘Orwellian’ system to be scrapped, claiming a police record could jeopardise a person’s career even if they were not charged with a crime.


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-record-whistling-Bob-Builder-theme-tune.html
 
Are sharks routinely fished or just plain destroyed as a nuisance species in Australia?

How important are sharks to the various coastal ecosystems? How important to the health of the overall ocean ecosystem?

Two reasons I can think of to "rebrand" encounters:

If the public became more aware of how common close proximity without any interaction between species occurred , and perhaps what not to

do in those cases actual injuries could be reduced, beaches wouldn't have to be closed etc.

Modifying the public perception to natural predator from "evil killing machine" would probably reduce the culling of populations of sharks.

These seem to be more likely reasons, but it's just my perspective.
 
Oris Borloff said:
Modifying the public perception to natural predator from "evil killing machine" would probably reduce the culling of populations of sharks.
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This happened on the Florida Gulf coast a while back. When I was a kid we killed many a shark, never let one go free, and thought we were doing the right thing. Most of my friends did the same.

About 20 years ago things changed as we became aware of the real situation with sharks, natural part of the system and threated. Now its all catch and release, but we try not to catch. Not sure what its like in the rest of the world, just my experience.

I still enjoy watching sharks, and catching one from time to time, but not too often. Actually when fishing sharks are usually a PIA, scaring off fish, attacking good fish you have on the line, and a whole lot of work to catch just to release. Caught a couple in the 6 foot range last month on a trip to Florida, wore me out, them too I think. All parties survived the encounters.
 
Oris Borloff said:
Are sharks routinely fished or just plain destroyed as a nuisance species in Australia?

How important are sharks to the various coastal ecosystems? How important to the health of the overall ocean ecosystem?

Two reasons I can think of to "rebrand" encounters:

If the public became more aware of how common close proximity without any interaction between species occurred , and perhaps what not to

do in those cases actual injuries could be reduced, beaches wouldn't have to be closed etc.

Modifying the public perception to natural predator from "evil killing machine" would probably reduce the culling of populations of sharks.

These seem to be more likely reasons, but it's just my perspective.
Click to expand...
Sharks are protected in Australian waters. In my much earlier days we were encouraged to only swim at patrolled beaches between the red and yellow flags that indicated safe swimming. Rips were the biggest danger and the volunteer lifesavers, who had to swim out with a line attached, could not be watching outside the marked area. If a shark was seen in the water there was a brass bell on the beach that was rung to tell everyone to leave the water. The most dangerous times were around sunup and sunset.

Times have changed but the general principle has not. Popular swimming beaches used to have nets strung out to deter sharks but they could still swim under them. The trouble with the nets was that they trapped other forms of wild life, including dolphins. Basically protection still relies on sighting and tracking big sharks from helicopters and alerting the lifesavers who sound the alarm for swimmers and surfers. The most dangerous species is the great white and their numbers are increasing.
 
Warrigal said:
Sharks are protected in Australian waters. In my much earlier days we were encouraged to only swim at patrolled beaches between the red and yellow flags that indicated safe swimming. Rips were the biggest danger and the volunteer lifesavers, who had to swim out with a line attached, could not be watching outside the marked area. If a shark was seen in the water there was a brass bell on the beach that was rung to tell everyone to leave the water. The most dangerous times were around sunup and sunset.

Times have changed but the general principle has not. Popular swimming beaches used to have nets strung out to deter sharks but they could still swim under them. The trouble with the nets was that they trapped other forms of wild life, including dolphins. Basically protection still relies on sighting and tracking big sharks from helicopters and alerting the lifesavers who sound the alarm for swimmers and surfers. The most dangerous species is the great white and their numbers are increasing.
Click to expand...
Thank you, for the information.
 
Of course defining what kind of encounter should be part of the change

Types of encounters

Combat Encounter Where shark is spotted by a pod of Killer Whales

Exploration Encounter Where a shark discovers nesting seals or a surfer

Attack Encounter Where a shark decides that what it smells is edible

Swarm Encounter Where a few hundred sharks are swimming together

Feeding Frenzy Encounter A rare encounter but basis for adequate amount of lifeboats on a cruise ship

Maiming Encounter Where a human survives but loses a limb

Loss of Human life Encounter Rare but reason enough to change the wording from attack to encounter.
As an article head line this is softer
"Man loses his life due to an encounter with a shark"

as opposed to "Man attacked & killed by a man eating shark"
 
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Knight said:
man eating shark
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This man has tried several times. The only edible one I ever caught was a dogfish shark in Alaska. The Florida Gulf of Mexico sharks I caught smelled strongly of ammonia or urea, not a pleasant thing. Tried treated them an number of different ways, nothing worked. The only way I was once able to eat a little shark gumbo was after drinking about a case of beer. Killed the bad odors, until morning anyway.
Warrigal said:
Times have changed but the general principle has not. Popular swimming beaches used to have nets strung out to deter sharks but they could still swim under them. The trouble with the nets was that they trapped other forms of wild life, including dolphins. Basically protection still relies on sighting and tracking big sharks from helicopters and alerting the lifesavers who sound the alarm for swimmers and surfers. The most dangerous species is the great white and their numbers are increasing.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the informative post. Your sharks are much more dangerous than ours. The only great whites I have seen in Florida were far out in the Gulf, miles from beaches.
 
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