I was eight years of age when I saw the film Jaws by Steven Spielberg and it wasn’t until seven years later that the situation was to be turned around through shark angling. Immediately after seeing Jaws, I was afraid to go into the ocean. A few months later, I recognized they wouldn’t normally come near you in shallow waters unless you’re in a motion picture or extremely unlucky. But for years, I believed that sharks were always superior to humankind. That sharks kill humans but not the other way around.
Imagine my euphoria when I learned that the hunter can in fact become the prey. I was fifteen when I learned I can hunt sharks and I’ve been hunting them since that time. It’s like payback for my younger years lived in fright of the shark removing my limbs, letting me expire slowly, but surely.
I really like shark fishing. I don’t know if it is because I know I can be superior than the shark or because it’s just enjoyable. But while I really like being superior to the shark, it wasn’t enjoyable when I saw images of how Taiwan anglers were getting rid of hoards of “biologically vulnerable” sharks. These are sharks which are a bit of weaklings, not quite the Jaws type.
The Taiwanese shark fishing is for the fins to maintain the Chinese specialty of utilizing shark’s fin for a delicacy. To be honest, I loved shark sport fishing but I don’t do it in a commercial sense. It was a hobby that would take 1 shark in one week or maybe 2. Kill 1 for dinner then put back 1 to live and to make new sharks.
If you see the images obtained by the Pew Environment Group, you want to reconsider going shark fishing. It’s really horrible, looking at those de-finned and bleeding sharks left on the side of the street. Some are even chucked back into the ocean to expire. These anglers are monsters. They ought to be tossed into the sea.
It brought to mind an image taken in Japan of anglers killing dolphins and whales in shallow waters to supply the sushi industry. Tsk, tsk. Many Americans just adore sushi, me, included. But when I saw that photograph, I just quit consuming sushi.
As for the commercial shark fishing, the Taiwanese Government promised to make stiffer regulations on this. It wasn’t mentioned how but what was clear was that de-finned sharks should no longer be tossed into the ocean.