Animal Vs. Human 1–When Shark Meets Surfer, Shark Usually Wins: Shark attacks are a part of surfing. They don’t happen very often (despite the impression you might get from the media), but it is inevitable that every once in a while a surfer will lose a limb or even get killed. The sharks aren’t malicious or evil, they are just doing what sharks do: hunting and eating. But that doesn’t stop the all-out shark hunts that follow in the wake of an attack, hunts that kill a lot of sharks in a pointless attempt to somehow wrest “justice” from a random and tragic event. So it was refreshing to hear the brother of an Australian shark attack victim who was killed over the weekend saying it would be a senseless act of revenge to try and hunt down and execute the shark that did the deed. Emotions were running high, because even by shark-attack standards it was a horrific death. Brad Smith, 29, was surfing Saturday at a well-known break called “Left-Handers” near Gracetown, south of Perth. As he paddled on his board he was attacked by a shark (perhaps a Great White) which one witness called “as a big as a car.” Another shark swam in circles while the attacking shark tore Smith in two. “We saw a guy scrambling around and saw him clinging to the shark and stuff, trying to, like, whack it, and trying to get away, and then they just kept coming back for more,” said Mitch Campbell. “He had no chance.” Smith was dragged from the water by other surfers but he was already dead. Even though it was the first shark fatality in that region in four years, fisheries authorities immediately geared up to try and hunt down the killer (despite the fact that Great Whites are protected). Smith’s older brother Stephen, even as he mourned Brad, stepped forward and announced that killing the shark–even if it could be accurately identified–would be silly and meaningless. He pointed out that his brother lived for surfing and understood the risks, and that killing any number of sharks wouldn’t bring him back. Too bad Australian officials don’t agree, and are pressing forward with an attempt to hunt the shark down and kill it…



Smith’s Surfboard: It wasn’t pretty…