Here we go again - and yes, I am livid!
I was having a real nice, mellow day - and now this.
This is what you get when moronic reporters, or whatever, interview moronic Shark experts!
No, I'm not gonna bother to post a full exposé.
I've blogged ad nauseam about feeding Sharks and I would be totally wasting my time trying to formulate yet another novel response to the old tired moronic allegations.
So this time, let's do something different.
Please re-read this.
Then, re-read this.
Then, have a look at this shit.
See?
The token Sesselfurzer (no, not a PhD!) has released a few more farts.
And then we got ourselves a veritable diving underwater medecine expert, Dr Carl Edmunds (Navy School of Underwater Medicine and South Pacific Underwater Medical Society) - who has been personally diving in the SOPAC no less! Wow, talk about impeccable credentials - after all, a PhD is a PhD, and who gives a shit about the totally irrelevant detail of the discipline it was obtained in! Tell 'ya what: how about an even more impressive veritable diving PhD (!) in quantum physics (!) next time!
And how about Mr. Hoy himself asserting that keeping (and feeding!) Sharks in an aquarium is a hell of a lot better for the Sharks! Compared to? Obviously, free Sharks being offered the occasional snack!
Just Great!
I say, show me the F@$%ing Evidence!!!
Are there more Shark attacks on Flinder's Reef?
Have there been less Shark attacks after the Florida ban?
Right!
Notabene: the above obviously with the exception of Pensacola where the life guards will henceforth be able to avail themselves of the unparalleled (!) spectacular eco-behavioral insights of the world's ultimate Shark expert, ladykiller (for German groupies only - alas!) and I read (!), owner of Sharkwater, Erich Ritter!
Talk about a prudent and at the same time, highly effective and outright visionary investment of taxpayer money - especially now in the recession!
How cool is that!
But!
Did I hear
There were reports of increased activity around the beaches, including reports of Great Whites circling fishing boats waiting for food?
Indeed! How many fishing boats are dragging in struggling Fish that send around irresistible vibrations all across the ocean? How many fishermen standing on the shoreline which last time I looked, includes the beaches drag in struggling Fish that send around irresistible vibrations all across the ocean? How many spear fishermen operate close to shore and shoot Fish whose death throes send around irresistible vibrations all across the ocean? And, how many of those folks clean their catches, throw the scraps into the ocean and create irresistible chum trails in the process - and this always in the same place, like the entrances and inside of the harbors and marinas? Remember Walker's Cay? Hell, in Hawaii they even conduct Tiger Shark viewing dives in one of those places!
Compared to how many Shark diving operators?
So who, exactly, is conditioning Sharks?
Let's ban all fishing and spear fishing!
I wish!
Have a nice day!
PS: thank you Patric! Rottweiler huh... :)
PS2: Wolfgang on the Sesselfurzer in 2007!
I was having a real nice, mellow day - and now this.
This is what you get when moronic reporters, or whatever, interview moronic Shark experts!
No, I'm not gonna bother to post a full exposé.
I've blogged ad nauseam about feeding Sharks and I would be totally wasting my time trying to formulate yet another novel response to the old tired moronic allegations.
So this time, let's do something different.
Please re-read this.
Then, re-read this.
Then, have a look at this shit.
See?
The token Sesselfurzer (no, not a PhD!) has released a few more farts.
And then we got ourselves a veritable diving underwater medecine expert, Dr Carl Edmunds (Navy School of Underwater Medicine and South Pacific Underwater Medical Society) - who has been personally diving in the SOPAC no less! Wow, talk about impeccable credentials - after all, a PhD is a PhD, and who gives a shit about the totally irrelevant detail of the discipline it was obtained in! Tell 'ya what: how about an even more impressive veritable diving PhD (!) in quantum physics (!) next time!
And how about Mr. Hoy himself asserting that keeping (and feeding!) Sharks in an aquarium is a hell of a lot better for the Sharks! Compared to? Obviously, free Sharks being offered the occasional snack!
Just Great!
I say, show me the F@$%ing Evidence!!!
Are there more Shark attacks on Flinder's Reef?
Have there been less Shark attacks after the Florida ban?
Right!
Notabene: the above obviously with the exception of Pensacola where the life guards will henceforth be able to avail themselves of the unparalleled (!) spectacular eco-behavioral insights of the world's ultimate Shark expert, ladykiller (for German groupies only - alas!) and I read (!), owner of Sharkwater, Erich Ritter!
Talk about a prudent and at the same time, highly effective and outright visionary investment of taxpayer money - especially now in the recession!
How cool is that!
But!
Did I hear
There were reports of increased activity around the beaches, including reports of Great Whites circling fishing boats waiting for food?
Indeed! How many fishing boats are dragging in struggling Fish that send around irresistible vibrations all across the ocean? How many fishermen standing on the shoreline which last time I looked, includes the beaches drag in struggling Fish that send around irresistible vibrations all across the ocean? How many spear fishermen operate close to shore and shoot Fish whose death throes send around irresistible vibrations all across the ocean? And, how many of those folks clean their catches, throw the scraps into the ocean and create irresistible chum trails in the process - and this always in the same place, like the entrances and inside of the harbors and marinas? Remember Walker's Cay? Hell, in Hawaii they even conduct Tiger Shark viewing dives in one of those places!
Compared to how many Shark diving operators?
So who, exactly, is conditioning Sharks?
Let's ban all fishing and spear fishing!
I wish!
Have a nice day!
PS: thank you Patric! Rottweiler huh... :)
PS2: Wolfgang on the Sesselfurzer in 2007!
9 comments:
show me the F@$%ing Evidence!!!
- I fully agree. There has to be some deep seated conviction (unamenable to counter-examples) that shark feeding must be unconsionably dangerous and therefore is.
The proof of the blame game idiocy is when ever-harassed and regularly bitten spearfishermen blame shark feeders near and far for their own woes.
Opponents of shark feeding cite what are little more than closet deterministic assumptions about a supposed causal chain leading inexorably to greater danger and greater likelihood of sharks biting people thanks to shark-feeding dives. But the evidence - it just does NOT happen thus - implies otherwise: that regularly and sensibly fed sharks are LESS dangerous than entirely wild ones.
Well said Jeremy!
It's actually EXACTLY like in religion and in those conspiracy theories.
The proponents all deem themselves above any obligation to substantiate, let alone prove their outlandish assertions - and the more you come up with evidence to the contrary, the more it's proof that you belong to the forces of evil!
Example?
50 witnesses seeing a plane slam into the Pentagon in broad daylight are obviously part of the conspiracy - but one single dude stumbling home from the pub and seeing a strange light in the sky has obviously PROVEN the existence of visiting extra-terrestrials!
"Can Sharks be Trained?"
"blah blah...YES"
A sweeping statement if ever there was one. Can captive Lemon sharks for example be trained? Yes, they can, the Navy did numerous tests on them in the 50's and 60's which showed them to be rather intelligent. Can a Whale Shark be trained? I dunno, I doubt it, don't think anyone knows nor will ever find out...
In conclusion idiots talk to idiots anout idiotic things and come up with non-story based on nothing in particular.
As always, you're spot on but I have to admit, your blog rage did make me laugh a bit :D
I figured you and Patric would have some colorful commentary on this. :)
By the way, I hadn't realized that Burgess didn't have a PhD. I've seen him referred to as "Dr. Burgess" repeatedly in the media.
Burgess has been basking in the glow of being the guy who's behind the loftily named International Shark Attack File for far too long.
Frankly I am done with him and his psudo-scientific take on our industry.
There's a lot of fine folks out there busting a hump to improve and grow our industry into "what it can be," not what Burgess and his ilk would like to paint it as.
It's one thing to point source out a few bad apples, every industry has them, but his blanket statements about "circus trained sharks" does not even delve into the data sets and studies coming back from reef sharks vs pelagic sharks.
The man, simply put, is a overweight statistician who I doubt has been shark diving in a very long while.
How's that?
OMG! Sesselfurzer!!! What a totally appropriate word that summed up the entire dialogue of that news spot! Mike, I spent years fighting this same fight out of Walkers Cay, was in the thick of it fighting for the right to conduct shark interactive experiences in Florida and am sad to see today that the world is no more enlightened!
I was there when George Burgess was confronted on camera as to why he never corrected anyone when they referred to him as "Doctor"! There was a great deal of stuttering and stammering! I am also the guy who tricked him into taking his first and only oraganized shark dive out of Walkers Cay and was mildly surprised to realize that he was totally terrified! I had to assign a divemaster one on one to get him down and back up to the boat. He spent the entire dive jammed under a coral head with his head swiveling like a scene from the exhorcist, while the rest of the dive guests swam around freely interacing with the sharks. It was most obvious that George had a serious pre conceived impression of shark behavior....or saw too may Jaws movies....or has been looking at way too may shark attack photos which has totally skewed his logical scientific objectivity. He later wrote an article about the experience in which he stated that he observed many of my sharks making classic posturing movements signaling a pending shark attack! WTF George! 35,000 people did that dive at Walkers Cay with sometimes well over 100 sharks and not one hint of aggressive behaviour exhibited to any diver!
Well enough of that! There will always be "Sesselfurzers" in this world to make our blood boil!!!
Kudos to you Mike on your relentless pursuit of......well.....Sesselfurzers!
OMG - Gary!
Love you mon!
Well said Gary, time to unmask the armchair shark expert completely.
The mainstream media can be educated as to his credentials and his one sided and frankly tired messaging.
The only reason they keep going to him for quotes is media laziness.
Push back, education, and a strong front will turn the tide here.
I like the start we got with this piece, let's continue until he's off the "go-to expert list".
To be replaced by.....?
You know the "alternatives": Ritter & Collier - equally endowed with pavlovian on-camera reflexes and arguably, even further out there in la-la land!
Somebody credible would first have to step up - but the good people just neither have the time nor the inclination to partake in those stupidities!
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