No…and it’s past time to extend marine reserves to three klm from shore for entirety of Continent, and ban every activity in this zone with tge exception of diving for purpose of observation and protection.

I’ll vote for tge party that presents that policy…probably the Greens.

Before commercial whaling there were perhaps 30,000 humpbacks, perhaps there were 100,000. Now there are more than 50,000, possibly 60,000, migrating up and down Australia's east coast each year, haven't they got anything better to do than migrate, can't they watch telly or do something useful, for a change. Cow dung breeds blow flies, before man discovered rump steak was yummy, there were perhaps 2 cows in the world, a male named Fred and a female named Betty, now there are 1.5 billion cows with no names. If we don't want to be overrun with blow flies, I'll just do the maths, each cow pat produces 100 blow flies, and the average cow produces 1,000 cow pats in its life time, 100 times 1,000 multiplied by 1.5 billion, plus there are the new cows born to add in, subtract 47 and carry the 2 the answer is... "a lot". Lets get rid of all those pesky cows and eat whales instead! Agree?

This 'scene' from Moby Dick always stayed with me....

"When in the Southern Fishery a captured Sperm Whale, after long and weary toil, is brought alongside late at night, it is not, as a general thing at least, customary to proceed at once to the business of cutting him in. For that business is an exceedingly laborious one; is not very soon completed; and requires all hands to set about it. Therefore, the common usage is to take in all sail; lash the helm a'lee; and then send every one below to his hammock till daylight, with the reservation that, until that time, anchor-watches shall be kept; that is, two and two for an hour, each couple, the crew in rotation shall mount the deck to see that all goes well.But sometimes, especially upon the Line in the Pacific, this plan will not answer at all; because such incalculable hosts of sharks gather round the moored carcase, that were he left so for six hours, say, on a stretch, little more than the skeleton would be visible by morning.

In most other parts of the ocean, however, where these fish do not so largely abound, their wondrous voracity can be at times considerably diminished, by vigorously stirring them up with sharp whaling-spades, a procedure notwithstanding, which, in some instances, only seems to tickle them into still greater activity. But it was not thus in the present case with the Pequod’s sharks; though, to be sure, any man unaccustomed to such sights, to have looked over her side that night, would have almost thought the whole round sea was one huge cheese, and those sharks the maggots in it. Nevertheless, upon Stubb setting the anchor-watch after his supper was concluded; and when, accordingly Queequeg and a forecastle seaman came on deck, no small excitement was created among the sharks; for immediately suspending the cutting stages over the side, and lowering three lanterns, so that they cast long gleams of light over the turbid sea, these two mariners, darting their long whaling-spades,

/cont

* kept up an incessant murdering of the sharks, by striking the keen steel deep into their skulls, seemingly their only vital part. But in the foamy confusion of their mixed and struggling hosts, the marksmen could not always hit their mark; and this brought about new revelations of the incredible ferocity of the foe. They viciously snapped, not only at each other’s disembowelments, but like flexible bows, bent round, and bit their own; till those entrails seemed swallowed over and over again by the same mouth, to be oppositely voided by the gaping wound. Nor was this all. It was unsafe to meddle with the corpses and ghosts of these creatures. A sort of generic or Pantheistic vitality seemed to lurk in their very joints and bones, after what might be called the individual life had departed. Killed and hoisted on deck for the sake of his skin, one of these sharks almost took poor Queequeg’s hand off, when he tried to shut down the dead lid of his murderous jaw.

*The whaling-spade used for cutting-in is made of the very best steel; is about the bigness of a man’s spread hand; and in general shape, corresponds to the garden implement after which it is named; only its sides are perfectly flat, and its upper end considerably narrower than the lower. This weapon is always kept as sharp as possible; and when being used is occasionally honed, just like a razor. In its socket, a stiff pole, from twenty to thirty feet long, is inserted for a handle."

Species tend to 'learn' which areas to avoid for their own safety. There was recent research showing that North American bear and mountain lions have learned to avoid going near human walking tracks due to said humans being armed and that merely hearing humans talking is enough to get these creatures to vacate a region.

A cull of Great Whites venturing too close to populated regions would, one would expect, lead to them learning that it was safer to roam and feed out to sea rather than close to shore.

Hi Trumpster, thanks for that,

I read both Mobi-Dick & The Old Man and the Sea, when I was young. I have the DVD Moby Dick with Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, very good screen adaptation, Gregory Peck was a terrific actor. Call me Ishmael.

"Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." Captain Ahab. Melville's Moby-Dick.

"Fish, you are going to have to die anyway. Do you have to kill me too?"
Santiago. Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea