Fishermen off Martha's Vineyard caught and killed a 1,100-pound tiger shark in a fishing competition, but didn't win the prize because they were too late returning to port. Six minutes sooner, and the trophy would have been theirs.
According to the AP, "The toothy tiger shark may not have won the competition, but it did win the admiration of other fishermen. Steven James of the Boston Big Game Fishing Club said this truly was a monster shark, and one that 'could eat you.'"
Could. But didn't. And I'd bet that it's been decades since anyone was killed by a shark off Martha's Vineyard. Conversely, humans kill millions of sharks every year. Most are caught in massive, miles-long drift nets; many are killed for their fins, which Asians use in soup; and some are killed by fishermen who think that destroying a beautiful animal makes them bigger men.
A beautiful animal, you say? Absolutely -- though you wouldn't know it from the photo the AP runs, showing the shark's corpse being hauled onto a dock. Any animal looks better without a huge steel hook in its body. But sharks are amazing creatures, especially when seen underwater. I've never dived with tigers -- and frankly, I wouldn't advise it, unless from a cage -- but trust me, when you see a shark underwater, it's like no other fish in the sea: dramatic, powerful, and graceful. And rare: It's getting harder and harder to see sharks, as human beings kill more and more of them -- whether by accident, in the foppish belief that their fins are aphrodisiacs, or, perhaps worst of all, for sport.
The media certainly doesn't help much. This wasn't a "monster shark," as the AP put it. This was a big shark, a fantastic specimen, the kind of thing that makes the earth a more wondrous place. Imagine if the AP had said, "A rare, magnificent specimen of one of the world's oldest species was pointlessly slaughtered today by human beings who wanted to win a contest and take a picture of themselves with the dead animal before tossing its carcass back in the ocean." That's more true than calling the shark a "monster." So how come no one writes it?
Don't get me wrong: I don't want to be attacked by a shark any more than anyone else does. But on the other hand, I don't want to live a life entirely free of risk. It's sheer hubris to think that we should rid the planet of any other species that might put us in danger, no matter how infinitesimal the odds. Yet that's exactly the effect of the hysterical media coverage every time a shark bites a surfer's leg off.
These Martha's Vineyard fishermen shouldn't be proud of themselves for catching and killing that tiger shark. They should be ashamed. They've just made the planet a little bit less beautiful. What will they ever do to make up for that?