Comments on: Shark kills swimmer in Solana Beach just south of OC - local beaches stay open

By: sonofabeach

sonofabeach — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:12:06 +0000

To cliff K… You are a funny guy! I can’t believe that whole line of BS i just read. You seem cleaver enough to be a novelist or something, but the fact remains… what you said is crazy because these monsterous eating machines are not going to adapt to different behaviors because we are shooting them… Food is the only thing they care about PERIOD! Its called instinct. and we have killed many other species of animals, marine and land, to see that predators never change their behavior. Even when we get em with our Boom Sticks!

By: cliff k

cliff k — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:28:32 +0000

Look, even as all you wildlife worshippers wax on about how magnificent and noble a creature is the great white, I say you’re forgetting that this particular animal, among many so disposed, is more willing than ready, at any moment, without compunction or hesitation, to impose upon any lesser organism the superiority its weaponry (speed, strength, size, teeth) affords, in order to utterly demean, debauch, demolish, destroy and devour whatever it chooses. Somewhere along the way, the two-legs-bad, got-fins-good gang became inclined to confer a kind of saintly privilege to a shark bent on bloody ruin, while denying the same ruthlessness if practiced by a human. Now, just what weaponry does a human bring to bear? Not much in the way of teeth and claws, but by damn, on account of our big stick of a brain, it’s no accident that we are potentially the most fearsome predators ever to stumble around this earth. And we come by that reputation honestly — it’s the only reason we’re still around, the only reason any of us have the luxury to dare to admire, in academic terms, a swimming, biting, remorseless phallus of a marine nightmare that would cheerfully reduce us to bones and blood if it were hungry and found us in any non-tenured context. So I say, take a bang stick into the water, if that’s a help, and let the next adventuring shark get the message about how big a bite we really can be. I hear a lot about how great whites are no longer considered solitary automatons, but are believed to demonstrate a great deal of discretion and even social review within their predatory behaviours. So…. if they’re so goddam smart, maybe they can hep theirselves ta some good ole-fashioned larnin’, and start twiggin’ ta the fact that they oughtn’t mess so with us bony, well-armed hyumuns. In closing, think of your own son or daughter in the jaws of one of these brutes, and ask whether you would truly persist in the deification/justification of these, errr… animals. Would you really say, well, live and let live (the shark that is). Or might you just discover your very own animal nature — you know, the one that bought your ancestors just time enough to spawn you? This is exactly why the shark question is an enduring, acute one: it forces us to consider whether we are content with aspiring to be fish food , or do we perhaps have something bigger in mind?

By: roz

roz — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:01:28 +0000

The only animal that has too many is the human. Everyone that stated we are in their turf is exactly correct. Does it make you feel like you are a big person to say thumbs up or down for the life of an animal? We as humans need to clean up our mess that we have made. What if it was the last shark or as in Louisiana in the 1950’s the last cougar was killed by a hunter because the cougar was a top preditor. Now when we hear of foot prints we get excited because maybe just maybe the last cougar was not killed. Our cougars were special because they were smaller and had a darker coat. WE AS HUMANS HAVE ABUSED OUR PLANET FOR FAR TOO LONG. We are the one’s with the brains………LETS USE THEM.

By: patrick

patrick — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:41:50 +0000

Two years ago I predicted to my adult son that there would be an attack off the North San Diego County coastline soon.
The reason is simple: Seals and sea lions are protected species and they are no longer allowed to be killed my fishermen like they have been over the last century. Anybody boating by the bouys off the coast of Carlsbad will know what I am talking about, they are thick out there and fight each other for an empty spot to “sun” themselves (or to get away from the sharks)on the bouys.
This will not be the last attack, in my opinion there will be another one within two years, until the population of sea lions is significantly reduced .
All you people that are criticising Gig; but the ecosystem is already screwed-up, it’s just a question of in favor of which creature. I don’t think the answer is to kill them off, but its not to provide them food for flourish either. Thinning out their food source could lessen the chance of attack. Thats what we’ve done to predetors on land. The risk is that some creatures become endangered, but the cost of not doing it is risk of human lives.
Would you go the local park if there was a significant chance at being eaten by a bear? Would you let your kids play there? Heck lets reintroduce predetors into our backyard while were protecting the sharks. Mark my words; attacks will become more common.

By: Shauna

Shauna — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:26:57 +0000

Another thing, whether land or ocean animal, we are in their homes. So many homes are being built all over the place. People get hurt by animals and then get upset. Well, maybe you shouldn’t have built your homes over where they used to live. They are running out of places to go because humans are building everywhere. Where do the animals have to live?

By: Shauna

Shauna — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:22:38 +0000

It was very sad what happened, but people have to realize that the ocean is the sharks home and we are intruding on their space. Killing a shark because they killed a human won’t solve anything.

By: Mohalo

Mohalo — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:42:15 +0000

Better yet, let’s give Gigs a spear gun and put him in the water with the white shark.

By: ohstanmoore

ohstanmoore — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:10:24 +0000

“the jungles of Africa expecting not to be attacked by a lion”

All kinds of stupid here. Lions do not predate in jungles.

By: beau

beau — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:05:36 +0000

It’s funny when people say “we’re just guests in the ocean” - we were just guests on land too, but that didn’t stop us from wiping out every predator that lived in/around the neighborhoods we call home, now did it?

ask yourself why you treat the ocean differently than you treat the land. You drive out every other natural predator on the land, but not the ocean? why?

You don’t say “my neighborhood is the turf of the mtn lion, or the wolf, and we’re just guests”, do you?

stop being hypocrites

By: Surfer G

Surfer G — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:34:16 +0000

Nice to see the Jaw’s response to the Shark Attack-did the mayor just call out orders directly from the script. Wow — what a show!