On Sharks.

I should start this little rant with a preface - something a little bit similar to when someone says, look, don't get offended, but... - that whilst I'm more of an animal lover than a people lover, I do appreciate the human race. If I manage to offend you with this post, then that was not my intention, but... y'know... I did say don't get offended. 

The population of sharks in our oceans is rapidly being reduced. Humans on the other hand continue growing - in fact, I remember being in high school and waiting for the world population to tick over to six billion people; it's now just over seven billion people. 

Where the problem occurs - and this is not news, it's just something I feel like getting off my chest because dammit, the guys playing cricket next door are drowning out my yelling from my soap box - is that there is no population control for humans. Emotionally, because we're the superior species, we are attached to numbers of ourselves. We're attached to the idea of family and the idea of having more of ourselves around. It's in our nature and it's completely understandable. 

So when a shark takes a person from the waters where the shark lives, the knee jerk reaction is to destroy that shark. Keep in mind that if a drunk driver smashes into a van carrying a family and kills all of that family, he is able to go to jail, repent for the trouble he has caused and then carries on his way. Sharks are simply doing what they do in the world they live in. Just like humans do what they do in the world we live in. 

Now, I'm not suggesting something as radical as population control for humans - that's a boundary that nobody is ready to cross - but we, as a species, need to have a greater understanding of the other animals that live on our planet. We need to accept that losses like this occur. Yes, it is awfully depressing for the family that has lost a son, a brother, a husband, a father. But, I'm not suggesting they simply move on with their lives, just to accept the loss. When that family is killed by a drunk driver, the remaining members of the family will no doubt say 'I wish he was dead for killing our family' but the law protects him for being lynched. There is no law to protect sharks, or wildlife for that matter. 

We are more than happy to cull corellas, lorikeets or seagulls if there are too many of them and causing a disturbance. Yet, humans themselves are unable to accept any form of loss, no matter how small. Whatever happened to every life being equal? 

I don't have a solution to the problem of people being killed by animals except to say that we as a country need to accept that in the environment we live in these problems will occur. Sharks do not make a habit out of attacking and killing humans - they are not serial killers. The comparison of them being a drunk driver in the sea feels trite, but that's what they are - they don't know that they are killing a human and they show no remorse for their actions. This does not mean we should react to violently against them. 

We as humans need to start accepting our losses caused by nature, as because of us there will be more happening over time.