Critically Endangered Great Hammerhead

One of the latest episodes of “Topwelt” said that each year 10 people die due to attacks by sharks, 50 get killed by spiders or bees, 150 get killed by jellyfish, 1.000 die due to attacks by crocodiles, 500 due to attacks by domesticated or wild elephants, and 50.000 get killed by snakes (numbers per year).
Most of these attacks happened when the animal felt threatened or thought that humans were edible. Thus this episode was about how to avoid an animal-attack:
>Kangaroos won’t approach you if you give off short and silent coughs. They will think you may be ill. If you walk backwards slowly away from the kangaroo, the animal won’t follow you, but it will if you run away.
>Don’t attract some prey fish by peeing into the water or by swimming while you bleed /while you have your period. They will smell this. Also don’t move and keep your eyes closed if the prey fish is a shark.
>The gills and the eyes are the most sensitive parts of a fish. If you get attacked by one (shark, sting ray, piranha…) just punsh it into these body parts.
>Lions won’t think you are something to eat if you make noise, wave something bright (e.g. a bright jacket or blanket), look them straight in the eye and don’t run. After all that’s not what the animals they eat would do.
>Don’t approach elephant calves or run when an elephant is nearby.
>Wild rhinos at best shouldn’t be approached at all as they are almost blind and thus consider anything unknown as a threat. Don’t try to outrun a rhino as they can run very fast. The best thing to do would be to hide behind a tree, in a bush or tall grass.
>Hippos can be aggressive and sometimes run very fast. Thus if you see a hippo (sometimes they spend some time in tall grass instead of water), you should get on a tree or rock and don’t come down until the hippo is gone.
>You may escape a crocodile by punching its eyes and run away fast, but not in a straight line. Also being loud will keep the animal from attacking you in the first place.
>Bees – even if they are after you – won’t follow you to dark places. Also they don’t attack people in bright clothes.
>An approaching snake won’t get to attack you if you stand still and don’t move at all as they need vibration to sense you.
>Don’t try to touch a cow, don’t try to approach a calf, don’t look a cow into the eyes, don’t run when a cow is nearby and don’t move or talk hastily when a cow is nearby.

Sorry for being late! That’s right! Sharks are fish and not mammals or reptiles…and definitely not birds or insects. Hey, I was merely repeating what the news say – as I usually do. Still, I can see why someone would make such a fuss over a shark, while still finding it okay to eat smaller fish. The important role sharks have in the ocean can’t be denied after all. And they have more cultural significance than smaller fish. But then again you may argue that any animal or plant has its significant role in an ecological system and that smaller fish also appear in culture (modern culture like “Finding Nemo”, some childrens’ books and as a Christian symbol).
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News: The latest episode of “Topwelt” – a German adaption of the American TV-show “Alltime10” – was about mysteries that finally got solved recently. Years ago Japanese fishermen found a strange-looking, rotten carcass in the sea, photographed it and published the photo. It looked like a plesiosaurus and some saw this as evidence that in the mostly undiscovered depths of the sea this reptile might have survived. Alas, no! The lower jaw and the gills of a shark aren’t that tightly attached to the rest of the skeleton. Thus once the carcass starts to rot, they just fall off, making the rest of the body bare some resemblance to a plesiosaurus.

Sharks are fish, big fish, considered game fish and covered by US Fish and Game laws, but still fish. The anglers can’t just take as many sharks as they can and hope for the best.
One shark, per boat, per voyage. Minimum 58 inches. A shark killed is a shark taken.
The penalties are very severe.
http://www.eregulations.com/maryland/fishing/sharks/
Large fighting gamefish are caught on hooks and are usually killed in the taking, rarely taken alive and released, but are harder to catch than you’d think.
These are not endangered sharks, nor are they taken in ways different than bass, bluegill or catfish.
A large shark feeds many people, and the next largest shark will live until next year growing larger on the food the taken shark didn’t eat.
I’m not saying it’s not bad. I also oppose “fishing tournaments” because I think blood sports should never ever be “contests” nor shown on television for “entertainment”.
Shark fishing is a very different thing from killing high order mammals like whales and porpoises though, or fighting bulls, as long as the shark population isn’t endangered. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite but that’s how I see it.
Or maybe my love of fishing has jaded me some.
Just my opinions but see? I do read!

The Mako Mania Event in Ocean City, Maryland, USA is a fishing event a journalist writing for National Geographic recently wrote a critical article about. You see, the mako is a kind of shark and this event mainly is about how many and how big makos you can catch – and kill or release – within the time span of this tournament. Some say this is more cruel than ordinary fishing, because sharks are more important to the environment than most other fish. Others say these fishermen make sound those Americans speaking out against Japanese whaling or Spanish bullfighting sound like hypocrites who ignore animal cruelty within their own country, but complain about other nations being cruel to animals.

The latest episode of the German TV-show “TopWelt” – actually just a German adaption of the American “Alltime10” – warns people about meals that involve sharks. As these animals are on top of the meanwhile mercury-contaminated marine food chain – even feeding on other predators including smaller sharks – their meat has probably the highest mercury-contamination of any fish.