When researching the previous post, I came across this epic piece of horse manure:
"It's about time! The fact that it took this long for such legislation to happen is a little frightening, and the fact is there are still many more areas that need similar laws. How can anyone say with a straight face that chumming or feeding large, dangerous species of sharks does not increase danger to humans and does not increase the risk of shark/human interactions? And listen, these laws should not be limited to commercial enterprises... scientific research are big violators of these activities, and I believe also pose serious dangers when they partake in chumming and feeding large sharks.
Sincerely,
Kevin Harris"
Who is this guy, thinks moi and goes digging about in the Blogosphere.
Turns out he's some fella who hosts a
stupid website aimed at proving that there's a Conspiracy (by scientists, conservationists and other equally despicable and shady individuals) to downplay, falsify and suppress the (mind-boggling) information that Sharks do attack people.
His (auto-) bio mentions that he "has been a journalist for 10 years, and is passionate about truth and accuracy in reporting" and his creation sports the proud motto "Pro-Shark • Pro-Truth".
"Truth", I may add, as in the above comment which reeks of prejudice, conjecture and outright ignorance.
Having seen some other, equally edifying posts by Kevin, his
modus operandi seems to be to issue some preposterous provocation and then, when confronted, to claim that he's actually the biggest, and vastly misunderstood Shark conservationist of them all. As witnessed by his website!
Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.
I ask:
cui bono? What possible benefit can
anybody derive from Mr. Harris' morbid fixation?
YES Sharks do attack people and sometimes feed on them -
So What?
In the big scheme of human mortality, these are nothing but exceedingly rare freak events, barely worth mentioning, tiny blips in a deluge of tragic incidents affecting people's lives.
Where does this messianic paranoia stem from? Couldn't he invest his relentless energy into some causes really worth pursuing? One would be tempted to shout,
get a life! and move on to more pressing matters - but as always when dealing with zealots, it aint quite that simple.
Alas, it seems, some of us have been suckered into trying to counter that garbage with arguments, and by that fact alone, they've unwittingly conferred some kind of legitimacy to its author. I'm thinking of good people like
Wolf and
Jupp who got themselves embroiled in pointless exchanges of opinion. Even
Underwater Thrills with whom I otherwise see eye-to-eye in nearly all cases.
The danger is this.
Unlike other harmless whackos peddling preposterous Conspiracy theories (
take your pick...), this particularly obnoxious specimen is directly counteracting our efforts to protect Sharks by perpetuating the image of the lurking killer beast. By hijacking our forums and our time with his asinine
punditry and pathetic armchair quarterbacking, he continues to detract us from the real issue at hand, the world-wide plight of Sharks and the challenge to try and change perceptions in order to stem that bleeding.
He's nothing but a sad, condescending and Shark-hating voyeuristic parasite, a small, petulant and self-important jerk who seems to get a kick from stirring up shit and rattling our cages, mine included (yup I know I know, I've just made myself a new friend for life.....).
The only way to deal with people like him is to ignore them.
You may want to keep that in mind next time you should come across one of his idiotic propositions.
