Sharks are Friends not Food!

Ok, so bear with me please, I love sharks and think they are very misunderstood and magnificent fish. One of the most memorable moments of my life was swimming in the pacific ocean and seeing a school of 100+ hammerheads swimming all around me. I have had many an argument before now with people who are afraid of sharks, think I am crazy to dive with them near me or even worse think it is acceptable to eat them.

It seems to me that in any film portraying a shark they are always the monsters that eat people. I even witnessed my friends little boy recently pretending he was a shark (with Jaws theme tune and all) and saying he was going to eat me – he is 3 years old! Due to this the sympathy, and as a consequence protection, of this endangered species is seriously lacking.

Let me give some specific examples of injustices:

1. Sharks kill people, I accept that. Usually around 2 people per year. The number of people who drown each year however is in excess of 3,000. When I go diving with sharks my friends get very nervous about this and wonder if I have lost my mind. At no point however do they express their concern about the risk of me drowning.

Elephants kill around 50 people per year. When I tell people that I got married in Sri lanka and my wedding transport was an elephant I get the response of “wow” or “how cool” not omg, how dangerous - are you mad!

Over a million people each year are killed in road traffic collisions yet I do not know a single person who considers it too dangerous to travel in a vehicle.

My point is there is absolutely no logic to the fear people have of sharks this is simply something which has been instilled in people by the media.

Sharks are wild predators which need to be respected but that respect does not need to be in the form of fear to the point of hysteria.


2. My second angry rant – eating sharks. Whilst humans are quick to point to sharks as the angry “mankiller” there appears to me to be insufficient outrage in respect of how many sharks are killed by humans each year. It is estimated (MCS) that for every fatal shark attack, 10 million sharks are killed by humans.

Many shark species are classified as endangered and more are being added to the list on a constant stream. I cannot see why it would be acceptable to hunt any creature to the point of extinction.

Furthermore shark finning is a barbaric and outrageous practice which should simply not be condoned. On many occasions a shark is caught, the fin is removed while it is alive and then it is thrown back into the water to either starve to death, be eaten alive by other fish, or drown. Many people think of this happening in far away places but I live in Lincoln, England and there is a Chinese restaurant near me which serves shark fin soup!!! This enrages me. Going back to my earlier analogy about elephants, do you think it would be accepted if a local Indian restaurant decided to serve elephant meat? Do you think it would be accepted any more if it became known (for example) that the general practice was that the elephant had the leg chopped off for the meat while it was alive and was then left to starve to death? I doubt it very much. Would the practice of finning even be ignored if the fins came from cute dolphins….


Finally my thanks and Plea:

Thank you so much for reading my post, which I have no doubt you will realise I feel passionately about. Please think twice before spending your hard earned money in any establishment which condones the practice of shark finning and encourage your friends to do the same. Finally please do not pass on your irrational shark fear to your children so we can hope that the next generation can be far enough removed from Jaws to make the difference we haven’t.

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

I first read Time Traveler's Wife when it was revealed as one of Richard and Judy's book club in 2005 and after questioning the impossibility of time travel and getting my head around that I instantly fell in love with it and it became my favourite book (at that time). So when Audrey Niffenegger released Her Fearful Symmetry last year I could not wait to read it. My lovely friend L got the book fro Christmas and after reading it gave it straight to me to read. After reading the first 2 pages and deciding that the plotline had a degree of predictability to it (I could already see it coming) I put it down and despite picking it up on a number of occasions it took me until April to sit down on holiday and read it. I was not smitten by it at any point but did not want to give up on it given my love for her previous book so I persevered.

I felt that throughout that book that it was far fetched and predictable. Books do not have to be realistic (falling in love with 109 year old vampire who would like nothing more than to drain your blood is totally acceptable) don't get me wrong but I felt that there was no logic to the actions taken by some of the characters and it seemed clear to end in disaster. The love story side of the tale was very sad with no real saving grace of happiness or deep rooted feeling and at no point was I gripped to read more.

Sorry but it is a 3 out of 10 from me!

Book Reviews

I love reading (see earlier blog) and I am extremely opinionated ( I know you would never know!) so I thought as part of my blog I might review some of the books I read. So here goes for my first review (sorry to start on a negative note)...

Summer

Everybody has a favourite season of the year and mine is officially summer – why I hear you ask?

1. Flip flops – like most girls I LOVE shoes and I am sure my husband would say I have far too many (but clearly the truth is I do not have enough!). Of all the shoes however for daywear flip flops are my favourite and I love to wear them as soon as there is a slight hint of warmth in the air until I am forced by cold toes to put them away again.

2. Camping – if you need me to say more then please read this. There is no better feeling than sitting outside in the fresh air drinking a glass of wine and putting the world to rights. Then for hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows before bed and being woken up to the bright sunshine and sound of cows mooing. Bliss!

3. Barbeques – I love a good barbeque. A chance to get together with friends and sit outside. If combined with camping (see above) all the better!

4. Long days – I never have enough time to do the things I want to do. In summer when I get home from work it is still daylight for a good few hours and this makes the days seem so much longer with so much more time to do the fun things (like laying in the hammock in my garden reading a book).

Ah long live the warm weather….