click here for home pageA matter of perspective
All Spams and offensive emails will be returned with 2000 false and annoying emails courtesy of this very clever little piece of software. So before you email multiple copies of the same message be warned
I feel that we need to clear up a few misconceptions here.
Several Laws have been passed in Australia that have banned the capture of Great White and Grey Nurse Sharks. In line with these very strict laws it must be noted that I have never caught or intend to catch these sharks. The law has protected these Apex predators and any reference to these, especially the great white were prior to Federal Government protecting them.
I have had some less than desirable email from so called would be conservationist that tell me I am cruel etc etc. that is however their opinion and I accept and respect that. However they all seem to be based around mentioning the great white and their slow reproduction rate. Let me reiterate once again for the hard to understand, we do not condone or catch any protected species. It seems that most would be shark lovers don't know a whaler, from a nurse to a mako or a white, much less seen one other than on Discovery Channel.!!So here is a lesson in shark reproduction.
The sharks that we target are primarily whalers and tigers. Whalers have 28 pups each year, year after year after year, each pup has the ability to fend for itself from the moment it is born. Tigers give birth up to 54 pup Each Year, and continue to do so for up to 20 years. There are no shortage of both tigers and whalers around our Australian shores, as there are no shortage of blue sharks. There are no commercial fisheries in Australian waters for these sharks mentioned, Game fishermen of all kinds regard these as a threat and may shoot them at will if they threaten more high profile species like marlin. (that's something I bet you never heard on Discovery channel!). Most sharks in Australian waters are regarded as vermin and only a handful of really dedicated shark fishermen have the passion to chase these fish. They are extremely hard work to catch, most people never catch any good ones anyway as they are extremely dangerous.
Now with between 28 and 54 sharks being born per pregnant female each year, allowing for natural attrition of the young to other predators, the fact that literally a very small percentage of the game fishing industry actually fishes for these sharks, the numbers taken here in Australia are extremely small compared to the re growth of the species being caught in question. I am not fishing myself out of a sport, far from it. In fact being an advocator of scientific tag and release I have personally caught tagged and released more sharks than most of you "greenies" and at the very least, at least my efforts have done more for shark tracking and understanding than most foolish people that email with their wisdom on sharks. Again another fact, is that the shark population of both whalers and tigers are increasing, not decreasing, this can be seen by again more re interaction with game fishermen, especially over the past 10 years. I myself including my personal crew would take no more than 5 sharks a year, these are always utilised for food, at times when we have caught more than we require, as can be seen with our photos, the sharks are released, I personally can't see the reason for killing any fish, not just a shark for no reason.
I must say that I deplore the technique of fining and unaccountable slaughter. DO NOT put me in the same category as these bastards as that pisses me off. I am more accountable for my shark fishing if nothing else than to protect my sport. Incidentally this figure of 100 million sharks being caught a year refers mainly to school shark and tope around a metre in length. these are mainly caught around the Gulf of Mexico and around central America and S E Asia, these third world countries have no morals and ethics, not myself - one shark fisherman catching sharks off the jetty.
I wonder how many of you really know much about sharks before you jump up and down, how much is what you have seen on the TV or what you have seen in real life. I doubt it is the latter. Before you are quick to email me with your conservation point of view, ask yourself which sharks are actually being fished out and by who, I can tell you I am doing nothing to decrease any protected or anywhere nearly protected species of shark. I must also state that sharks are no different to any other large pelagic fish such as marlin, tuna, broadbill, kingfish, etc, so please if you are really interested in abusing us, email a generic letter to all these fishermen, not forgetting the IGFA (International Game Fishing Association) but before you do that, just think how much money people like myself and these guys put into protecting their fisheries, I can tell you now I have put more dollars through licensing and club fees / donations to fisheries protection than most do gooders. Without the fishermen who is going to keep detailed records of capture, charting migration patterns, tagging and tracking data, I can tell you its not your government, they don't give a damn about spending money on this research, most real dollars come from game fishermen. That's not to say that private research teams don't put in, of course they do, But there is a lot of data out there to collect and that is not going to be done by one group alone, so bear a thought that in your wisdom , game fishermen like myself are more interested in species protection, in order that we can pass this down to our kids rather than take and plunder, like most professional fishermen do.
If after this point of view you still decide to email me with regards to a negative attitude on what I have stated here, than don't bother, go and find yourself a fining site or medicinal shark cartilage site and email them as they are the ones taking from the ocean without regard for replenishment NOT ME.
Any Flames will be disregarded automatically so don't waste your time. Also all email addresses will be data based and if your email is particularly offensive your address will be donated to several marketing companies for such items as hemorrhoid creme as I am fed up with pain in the arse people who don't know jack shit about what I am doing.