On September 4th, 21 year old surfer Kyle Burden was looking to catch a wave off
Bunker Bay Shore, a popular Southwestern Australian Beach. His luck ran out. A
great white shark attacked him from behind, seizing the young man in his jaws,
instantly cutting him in half. Amid bits of flesh and red blood, he never knew
what hit him; death was quick. For anyone in the water, it was one’s worst
nightmare. Shark attack reality that’s becoming all too frequent. Dunsburough
Police Sergeant Craig Anderson was quoted, “You got to take your hat off to the
young fellow who was surfing with him and his mate for bringing (the victim)
ashore.” He went on to describe the rescuers as courageous. Kurt Morris, a man
eating lunch at Bunker Bay Café, saw the chaos erupt on the beach. Once pulled
from the surf, what was left of Kyle Burden lay in the sand, his upper torso
only, his liver, intestines and lower spinal cord strewn about the sand.
Visibly shaken, both surfers ran along the shore, clearing other surfers from
the water for fear of another deadly shark attack.
In the aftermath of this horrendous attack, “shark experts” (protectionists) pleaded
for calm, claiming one still is more likely to be struck by lightning or hit on
the head with a falling coconut. Yet Kyle Burden was only one of nearly 60
other shark attack victims of the last six months. From Africa, Australia,
Russia, West Indies, Hawaii, Coastal US, Red Sea, etc., the list is growing in
2011. Another year of vicious shark attacks. Stil,l more calls from Humane
Society International, the Pew Foundation, Save Shark Society, Wild Aid and
countless animal rights organizations would have the public believe the world
NEEDS all its sharks. These groups of lunatics would expect the protection of
dinosaurs if they still stalked the earth. Heads of many of these animal
protection sites often refer to predator sharks with pet names like Tiger Girls,
Elsa, Sabine and Matilda. (These people make me want to puke!)
The Australian Department of Fisheries is assisting local police, doing flyovers
above the beaches, searching for the giant killer shark, yet uncertain what to
do once they find it. Great white sharks have been protected in Australia since
1997 thanks to those eco-loons and their well-oiled propaganda claiming
declining shark stocks. Today’s shark protectionists say humans are invading
their territory (open water—the ocean). Fact is, humans use the earth’s beaches
and shores for fun, swimming, surfing, diving, boating, fishing, exploring,
etc. Human preservation necessitates a rational approach for self-preservation.
This past August, tiger sharks claimed the lives of tourists in two separate attacks. Experts from the Kwa-Zulu Natal Shark Board in South Africa recommended
anti-shark nets be installed at both attack sites. In France, Seychelles Home Affairs
Ministry stated, “We MUST prevent further shark attacks on our beaches.” And
after the attacks, forty sharks were hunted and killed. One of the victims was
newlywed Ian Redmond who was fatally attacked off Anse Lazio Beach while his
wife helplessly witnessed the carnage. One of the captured sharks, an eleven
foot tiger, had in its stomach a human arm and hand with a wedding ring on the
finger. Positive identification has yet to be determined.
The day after Australian Kyle Burden’s death, calls flooded authorities for reasonable
action (kill the shark before it kills again.) Shire of Busselton President,
Ian Stubbs said the shark should be killed but due to the white shark’s
protected status, it may take some time to get an approval. By then the shark
may be far from their shore, and on to another.
Surfers and others from the beach community are demanding protection beyond the surf breaks by using baited hooks and drums to remove the sharks. Department of Fisheries
Scientist and “Shark Expert” Rory McAuley claims there are many complexities involved in catching and killing a shark. There’s a lot of speculation as to what species of shark may
have been responsible, he stated. (The victim was bitten in half. Only a shark
16 foot plus could’ve done this. Shortens the list to great white or tiger, I
would think. And tigers are not yet protected.) Rory continued: “Approval (to
kill a great white shark) is only given if the shark is deemed to pose a threat
to public safety. And I don’t see a practical benefit in taking a shark.” Let’s
see, we’ve got half a corpse bleeding on the beach! Hmmm… I would think that’s
evidence!
As to practicality, it seems the South Africans wasted no time in killing their
offender. In my book: Sharkman of Cortez, flawed science is NO science but then
I’ve only hunted sharks for over four decades. I wonder if anybody was able to
bring comfort to the young surfer’s mother after she arrived from Queensland to
collect his remains.
In America, along our South Atlantic, from the Carolinas, Florida, up the Gulf Coast to
Texas, we’ve had our own shark attacks. Nearly a dozen in less than four
months. Several of the victims were children whose lives were saved thanks to
parents fighting off the attacking sharks and expert medical attention before
they bled to death. A five-year-old girl standing in two feet of water was
saved by her mother. She was lucky. A five-year-old would’ve been no match for
a 250 pound shark. September 2nd and 4th saw the most recent attacks against two surfers, both 19 and both along the coast of New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Coincidentally, Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) plans to add tiger and hammerhead sharks to their already bloated Protected Species list. In Florida, fishermen may legally catch one shark per person or two per boat. But if all shark species (about 14) end up on FWC’s
Prohibited list, it kind of defeats the purpose of this allowance. Smells like
more “protect sharks” agenda to me. Rather, a “justify jobs” agenda. What new
bogus laws will be left to create in order to keep them employed?
In the United States, the Eco-Con game has succeeded in protecting most shark species,
including the great white, for two decades. Whites have claimed lives off
California and Baja. Shark sightings and tagging have increased dramatically
from the Atlantic, Gulf Coasts and the Pacific, providing credible evidence of
healthy shark populations. With all the government regulations protecting them
from humans, I say it’s time we ask our elected officials, “Why?” Could it be
that animal rights organizations and lobbyists are putting money in the coffers
of those who make the rules? Even the Press has become unlikely supporters of
the Shark vs. Man agenda. The Sarasota Herald Tribune, my local newspaper,
often features articles about the Mote Marine Aquarium, a major shark
protection group connected to the FWC and contributor to save sharks agenda.
After the Australian surfer died, the paper’s World news briefs feature story
was about MacDonald’s hamburger chain listing their calorie count in London. Not
one sentence about poor Kyle. Very little in our paper about Florida shark
attacks also (a token one thrown in every few months). I find the St.
Petersburg Times has a more open-minded view of the World’s news.
Environmentalist and self-proclaimed shark experts refer to American sharks as “misunderstood”, dwindling in numbers due to over-fishing (although there is no American commercial shark fishing any more), and these poor sharks only attack humans
when they are provoked. We need to ask the parents of those kids attacked in
Florida and Carolina if they bothered the sharks. One idiot biologist claimed
more people die from electrocution using toasters. I find these people pathetic.
Last night I watched a documentary about the aftermath and destruction in New York on 9-11. Nearly five hundred fire-fighters and volunteers found human survival so important
that they risked their lives digging through tons of rubble just to save two
policemen buried alive. What a nightmare. But like the two surfers who paddled
through blood-washed water to pull Kyle Burden to shore, those volunteers in
New York were also courageous. Maybe there is hope for humanity if Man’s life
is recognized as more important than a fish.
Captain Bill