Beautiful Animals

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Even Great Whites can be beautiful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt8mcy8gZVM

@Builder,

Wow, builder. I'd no idea of all that, so thanks for the video link.

I've a couple of odd shark stories - the year before I moved to La Jolla, California, for my laboratory internship, and rented a small cottage behind a victorian type house that was across the street from La Jolla Cove, a shark had killed someone in the shallow water there..

The other story is that my father had a shark he and his brother had caught, I think dead, not sure, but the shark's jaw could still move and it nabbed my father's hand. There was still a scar there, for the rest of his life. I am guessing this happened in the early 1920's. Lucky for me, that it was fairly minor as shark injuries go, otherwise I might not be alive and kicking.

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@ossobucotemp,

Valerie Taylor was legendary here with her hubby on the camera.

I worked a line-fishing boat on our great barrier reef, and during a lull in the bite on a hot Summer's day, I decided to jump in for a dip.

The skipper near had a heart attack dragging me back in the boat. He pointed to the sounder, which showed a depth reading of zero metres, despite us being in quite a lot of water.

There was a large tiger shark, hanging just under the sponsons of our kevlar kat boat. Only about five metres long. D'oh! I was just a dumb kid. From the bow, you could look under the boat, and see that the shark only just fit the gap between the sponsons.

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@Builder,

My father's brother ended up the captain of a vessel called the Hawaiian Farmer; I forget the name for that kind of vessel, basically a cargo ship. I don't remember any more shark stories from the brothers..

The brother went to Harvard, became a lawyer, and was later disbarred. I looked into it, but by the time I did there weren't any notations on tbe book re what the hell he did, and the brothers and my mother had passed away. So, after the disbarment, or whatever you call it, he went to sea... and probably was happier.

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@Builder,

Builder, I've always thought that great whites are beautiful. Powerful, sleek, and perfect for what they are and what they do. In fact they're my favorite fish. (I never said I wasn't a little strange.)

However, I think that people swimming with them and feeding them by hand are nuts! There's strange and then there's STRANGE. I think the sharks need to be respected for what they are and what they do. Get your ass out of the water.

I've heard of Valerie Taylor and her husband. They've done amazing work on sharks.

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When I was a seafarin' man, one of the officers aboard the sloop was a turd. Every time he saw schools of sharks he got a rifle and shot as many as he could. I loathed that seadog.

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@edgarblythe,

Aaaaak!! re that guy.
My earlier business partner's son went for his captain's license (business partner was a good sailor herself). He got the license, and one of his first jobs was on a ship that had various sea enthusiasts out for a day of fun. They ******* used bats to hit the tuna. He quit that job pronto, but I still remember the description, though not all the particulars, just a certain vision resting in my brain.

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@ossobucotemp,

It's hard to fathom a person that enjoys that sort of thing.

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@edgarblythe,

I always have thought so, but I'm taking things as getting wor...
Ok, no politics on this thread, I say to myself.

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@edgarblythe,

Yes. Studies could be conducted re cruelty mixed with glee... but not by me.

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@edgarblythe,

One of our favourite line fishing spots, Double Island point, the school sharks get so prolific, it's a race to get the fish in the boat before they get munched up. Quite common to pull just the head of a nice reef fish, or get fully hooked up on a large-ish shark.

It's the reason we didn't use braid line, unless trolling the surface; couldn't break off if you did get a shark attached.

I still wouldn't resort to shooting them, though. It's their home.

Often saw humpback whales on their migrations in Winter. Had one turn belly up to swim under us. The barnacles severed all of our lines, but what a sight that was, in the crystal clear water.

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@Roberta,

Quote:

I've heard of Valerie Taylor and her husband. They've done amazing work on sharks.

From memory, they met while competition spear-fishing. It didn't take them long to realise that a reef could be quickly destroyed by spear-fishing, so they turned to conservation, and education about the same.

They put together this video on the Great White. Enjoy. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUo58tknZVg

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@Builder,

Builder wrote:

One of our favourite line fishing spots, Double Island point, the school sharks get so prolific, it's a race to get the fish in the boat before they get munched up. Quite common to pull just the head of a nice reef fish, or get fully hooked up on a large-ish shark.

It's the reason we didn't use braid line, unless trolling the surface; couldn't break off if you did get a shark attached.

I still wouldn't resort to shooting them, though. It's their home.

Often saw humpback whales on their migrations in Winter. Had one turn belly up to swim under us. The barnacles severed all of our lines, but what a sight that was, in the crystal clear water.

The one to which I referred only cared about killing them. There was no larger motive.

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@Builder,

Thanks for the video. Nice to see people who actually respect the animals in their environment. I remember seeing a film (a long time ago) with the Taylors. They had invented a metallic shark-proof diving suit. It was mostly successful with smaller sharks.

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@Roberta,

Quote:

It was mostly successful with smaller sharks.

I remember that one too, Roberta. Valerie was the test pilot, and she got a crush injury from a fairly small reef shark. I'd have had my doubts from the start with the concept. Slaughtermen and boners (butchers) have been using that sort of "material" for quite some time now.

Glad they didn't get too much attention from a larger critter.

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