But aren’t your post getting a little narcissistic, given the circumstances, e.g.

Ewwww…lookie…eight people died in a balloon crash. DID YOU KNOW… I went on that balloon ride once.
Ewwww…lookie…someone got thrased by a great white. DID YOU KNOW…. I got chased by a shark once.

Go read my first post on this……and, you heartless twerp, send the victim’s family your detailed explanation.

I hope you never experience what they have…. nor, as I did, with the loss of a close friend.

I am happy to tell you that before the Carter law was introduced I took pleasure in sending four of those rabid kilkers to the bottom. They all had .303 headaches. Their tooth ache due to my large hooks hardly mattered.

Given the chance again, I would do it again – Carter crap notwithstanding.

Perhaps your predatory name IS REALLY APPROPRIATE,

By the way, I nominate the Police shooter for a medal ……..

While some are moaning about the Japs taking a few whales, we have some problems closer to home.

Great Whites are a protected species under NZ law and I am distressed to have just heard a news report that the police are believed to have shot to death one of these magnificent creatures.

It is an offence and I will be looking to see the prosecution of those concerned. Just as the police would prosecute a member of the public in the same circumstances, along with some firearms offences no doubt.

http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2007/0048/latest/DLM427875.html

Now to stir this up a little

A lawyer asking about the place of sharks in society????

Really DG would have thought you had that sorted.

Where to stop? Buggered if I know. I just hate Whites! HND, D

I still don’t see the point in pursuing this line of thought. If you deeply hold the view that great whites should be culled to protect the 1 in 13 year event of being mauled by a shark, then surely there are bigger fish to fry (pun intended).

Cars kill 300-odd a year. Ban them? Dogs kill and main dozens a year. Ban them? As Slater has tongue-in-cheek pointed out, cows have killed more than sharks in NZ, so should we ban them? What about those killed in the Carterton balloon crash, one of whom I knew? Ban ballooning because someone ‘might’ die if something goes wrong while we are in an environment not suited to us (open air)? People die from being poisoned by alcohol. Ban alcohol? People have been killed on safari in Africa. Kill all the lions? It’s a nonsense argument.

It’s a tragedy for the family concerned, but so too for all the families of those killed in all the above examples.

I (and flipper by the sounds) choose to dive and swim in an environment occupied by deadly predators. I’d hate to die from a shark attack, but I’d also hate to die being run over by a drunk in an SUV on the way home. My opinion is that culling would be more suited to the latter example, not the former.

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/5334/unprovoked-shark-attacks-in-new-zealand

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/gattack/MapZE.htm

And details of attacks around the world.

http://sharkattacksurvivors.com/

In all seriousness though, I think we do well to remember – and occasionally honour – the classical influence upon our society.

But the “what about the other dangerous predators” faction make a good argument…I know that hammerheads have also been known to attack humans…in fact I think they might be considered even more dangerous…but do great whites feed on them? I suspect – but don’t know, which is why I am asking – that the “man eaters” dont eat each other, but rather much more docile prey, like seals, or chaps in wetsuits that look like them?

Cato: Mon dieu you are a clever chap! All of those Latin phrases, right on the tip of your tongue! And I bet you could go on demonstrating your knowledge, ad nauseum….

But there was a death at Petone circa 1860s (?) and there was one in Napier. The sharks were never identified., Moreover, it was not until the Jordan, Black and Marian Kneightly (Oakura) deaths that we became aware of the Great White danger. Leslie Jordon’s death was the first authenticated shark death in the memory of most people.

By the way, the Great White is descended from an even bigger, similar creature that would make the Aussie 24 footer look tiny.
There is a walk -thru, “life size?” mock up in Napier’s Marineland.

I take it that you don’t know that FOD customarily means “homosexual” (from “Friend Of Dorothy” [i.e. Judy Garland, gay icon]).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_of_Dorothy

NTTAWWT

[DPF: LOL]

I’ll keep your complex about this in mind “ex nunce” though, by avoiding the use of loan words, phrases and abbreviations “et cetera”.

Will you be satisfied if we just dump Latin words and phrases like: bona fide; prima facie; i.e.; n.b.; per se; pro rata; vice versa and via. Would you also like to purge all French influence from the language, for “e.g” in lieu and bien pensant?

Sharks live in the sea. Humans just visit.

By the way a conservative estimate of the score yesterday was 104,000 to 1 against the Sharks.

When we are done with the sharks you can go for the snakes, spiders, Hippos, Rhinos, Cheetahs, and everything else that will potentially kills us and then finally you’ll be free.