ADELAIDE, Australia (26 Aug 2005) -- A leader of Australia's scuba diving industry has called for authorities to kill the shark that attacked a marine biologist scuba diving off Adelaide. Scuba diving industry association director David Oliver called for a "rapid response plan" to track down and kill the shark that attacked 23-year-old Jarrod Stehbens. "We are active in water sports and while the shark remains in the water there is the prospect that danger still exists," Oliver told reporters. "Our public would feel a lot safer if that shark was removed from the water." Many in the diving community disagree with Oliver's "kill the killer" mentality including the parents of the shark attack victim who said their son would have been appalled at the notion that sharks should be culled. "He's a marine biologist; he wouldn't want anything killed like that," Stehbens' father told reporters. Cyber Diver Society (CDS) president Evan T. Allard said he was also shocked and disappointed to hear a dive industry official calling on authorities to kill a shark. "It is a terrible tragedy that a bright young scientist died before he was able to teach Mr. Oliver and his colleagues in Australia's scuba diving industry why killing sharks for doing exactly what nature designed them to do is the essence of human ignorance," Allard said. | | If shark attacks are rare and scuba diving with sharks is not particularly dangerous, then why does Australia's scuba diving industry want to kill them? "The day is coming when there will be no more shark attacks," Allard added. "Young Jarrod Stehbens, his colleagues, marine scientists around the world and the vast majority of the global scuba diving community all understand that is the only shark problem that really matters." Should we kill sharks that attack people? Go to Scuba Poll © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
