The Difference Between Sharks and Whales

A ridiculous letter in the Daily Telegraph this morning:

"I think I have a solution for our shark problem. We could create a whole new market for shark meat, alternatively named of course. The Government could make millions from strategically marketing and selling shark meat to Asia and, if properly promoted, other parts of the world. The jobs created for such an industry could potentially be huge. Our beaches would be safer and maybe we will just convince the Japanese to eat Australian shark meat instead of whale." Dean Tadich, Regents Park

Firstly, I'm not even sure whether this letter is tongue-in-cheek because it seems so ridiculous that I'm tempted to let it speak stupidly for itself, but judging by the medium (letter to the editor in a tabloid newspaper) and its apparent sincerity I think I'm going to treat it seriously.

Let me start off with an overview of the whaling issue; whales have a high profile for a reason, they are great indicators of the health of the marine ecosystem and they're really big mammals that mostly eat small prey like krill and plankton. Most whale species are endangered, not just through hunting but also due to pollution and other environmental factors. (But the fact that the Japanese are whaling under the guise of scientific research isn't helping the whale population any, though it is giving the issue a high profile thanks to Greenpeace's efforts. Which begs the question, why haven't they invented technology that would allow them to research their subjects without killing them? And how come they are allowed to sell the whale meat from scientific research? I doubt it would be healthy to eat beef that has come from a lab cow, for example).

Now sharks, the poor things, suffer from a rather poor reputation because their prey is much bigger, fish and mammals like seals come to mind. As I learnt at the Vancouver Aquarium late last year, sharks have very poor eyesight and can't tell the difference in silhouette of a sea lion and a human on a surfboard, for example. Their keen sense of smell picks up warm blood though and they confirm things with a taste. Usually when they taste fibreglass and find out they're mistaken they find something else to eat, like a mammal without a surfboard.

However, many shark species are endangered to the same degree as some whale species, so the disparity in our treatment of them is purely based on the fact that sharks bite humans and whales do not. But think of it like this, sharks live in the ocean, humans live on land - at what point did we take possession of the sea to this degree? We deprive sharks of food through overfishing and pollution and now, when they find a human to munch on, Mr Tadich wants to hunt them as food.

Let me reiterate; sharks are an essential part of the marine ecosystem (therefore we shouldn't eat shark meat), many shark species are endangered (therefore we shouldn't eat shark meat) and humans often infringe on the natural habitat of sharks (therefore we shouldn't kill sharks for doing what come naturally to them). Really, how can you punish a shark? A shark eats a woman, you kill the shark; what does that really achieve? You can't make and example of it, other sharks don't 'learn a lesson'.

How about plain and simple education for humans about the nature of sharks, how to avoid an encounter with a shark and what to do when there's one around? And early notification of the presence of sharks. Discouraging sharks from swimming near beaches is fair enough, provided it's done in an eco-friendly manner (no nets etc). And no shark meat on the market. Please. I don't trust that humans are smart enough to know how to manage something as complex as a marine ecosystem.