Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Easy to Find

I read the story of the crew from the History Channel TV show "Shark Wranglers" catch and tag great white sharks with instruments and GPS transmitters which people can track in real-time on their Website. Ok, for TV viewers to see them catch, tag and release large sharks but what about the sharks?

If anyone now can track the shark on the Website, who's to say a group won't track, capture and kill the shark for food or a commercial sport fishing company track and offer a wealthy person the opportunity to reel in a large shark for the trophy?

In putting the tag on the shark so anyone can locate it, then it literally puts a live target on the shark, a bounty anyone with a boat and gear to hunt and catch. The shark's life is now profit for a company or group and a prize for someone.

They note it's in the interest of science but environmentalists warn it's also in the interest of shark hunters. And the shark is now the easy to find victim. Where's the common sense? Where's the understanding for the shark to leave them alone?

Sorry, to me, this is stupid. Studying them is great. Tagging them is acceptable, but only if the scientist are the ones who can track it. To give the location to everyone may sound cool, and even help with education of sharks, but not to the shark.

Any bets the shark is caught and the tracking equipment left in the ocean with the spoilage?

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