....................................I've Had Enough !!!! .....................................................................

........................I am so sick of Shark Porn!!!

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I am a COMPLETE and UTTER documentary whore.

I love my doco's - I love me some Sir David Attenborough........ I love some Jeff Corwin ......... Steve Leonard ...........Dave Salmoni ............. Jamie Crawford .............. Nick Baker ............... the people who make GOOD, CONSTRUCTIVE and SANE wildlife documentaries.

I could not stand the Crikey Guy aka The Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin - he did not get "attacked" by a stingray - he was once again molesting yet another poor animal he had his beady little eyes on and this one decided to fight back - as many people said one eventually would.  I am sorry he died - certainly for any one who departs this earth prematurely - but if you bug an animal eventually it will push back.

For the same reason I can not stand that idiot Austin Stevens.

*NOW* one of my favorite TV channels has now sunk to the same level of sensationalism that it seems the media has to sink to these days to get the "suits" to okay their show.

Shark Week on the Discovery Channel has always been one of my favourite times of the year as the shark is one of my favourite animals to see profiled in a documentary.

But the last couple of years, Shark Week has quickly morphed into Shark Victim Week - AKA Shark Porn.

Now - we no longer have Sir David or one of the other sane wildlife presenters hosting / narrating a documentary that shows you something interesting about sharks i.e. their importance in the food chain which also contributes to the security of commercial fish stocks etc. - now we just see show after show of how this person got attacked and survived and then a show about THAT great white shark that took this person accompanied by lingering shots of the victims family sobbing on TV and blaming that "rogue shark".

Now, don't think for a second I am not sympathetic to these poor people.  Losing a loved one is one of the most horrifying things that one can experience.  The grief is overwhelming and the emptiness of their loss is never filled and you are left with a gaping wound that never heals.  My heart aches for these families.

And yet, can someone please tell me how bloody, graphic doco's of these attacks somehow help the family?  Does it help them heal?  Does it help them fill the void in their life?  No..... all it does is serve as a rallying cry for those morons who believe the only good shark is a dead shark.

Any loss of human life is one too many, but the reality is that sharks kill perhaps 10 people a year - we kill 80 million sharks a year.

Hippos in Africa kill a thousand people a year - shall we kill all of them?

Bees kill several thousand people a year - same question...

How about Lions - those cute cats shown in the Africa profiles - they kill some 400 people in Africa every year -  if someone went on television suggesting that we should wipe them out to preserve our safety could you imagine the outcry?

Now don't think for a minute that I am a naturalist who has the psychology of PETA - those freaks wouldn't know real conservation if it bit them on their metropolitan designer clad arses.

The truth of the matter is - we have moved from profiling an animal - to glorifying the unfortunate byproduct of humans entering it's environment.  

I won't be watching Shark Week this year - and I've emailed them my thoughts - but I guarantee it won't matter - why?.............. because our fear overrides our common sense .............. and fear apparently makes for really good TV.

Sir David can not be happy.

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