Shutting down Jim Abernethy's shark hara$$ment tours...Raoul - AOW / Self-employedJune 11, 2008 at 06:43:16Re: "...Business people who conduct themselves this way for profit and personal gain, and who demonstrate such poor stewardship of our sensitive planet's environment and resources should be restricted from engaging in these activities for commercial purposes.
They are profiting financially from the abject suffering they impose on marine animals for the sheer entertainment of a few equally uneducated and inept underwater tourists who are interested in nothing more than
a cheap thrill and a few "ego-shot" photos of themselves alongside a tiger shark. Stop this ridiculous activity at once and let's get these pinhead rednecks off of our precious oceans and back to their trailer parks where they belong." Fred |
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While I agree with your comments accusing Jim Abernethy and sleezy, small-minded business cronies such as Eric Cheng and Alex Mustard of "poor stewardship" of the marine environment, it would be difficult to take them down with a grass-roots campaign. Harassing sharks is legal in the Bahamas. Without shark baiting tours, boat operators such as Abernethy, and promoters such as Cheng and Mustard, would have to find real
jobs that produce something more environmentally credible and socially beneficial than shark harassment masquerading as the solution to shark finning (cue laugh track). In this era of digital photography and online file-sharing by thousands and thousands of so-called "amateurs" who are obviously much better photographers than Cheng and Mustard, selling fish pictures is nickle-dime stuff that adds up to beer money. They
make their bucks promoting themselves and shark baiting tours where people pay about $4,000 a week to watch baited sharks "perform" and "model" for tourists. Promoters like Cheng and Mustard get a free ride and pocket 20%, or about $6,000 for a week on Abernethy's ugly old tub. On a bigger shark feeding boat, they can easily double their take to $12,000 or more. Not bad for a week's holiday in the Bahamas and
hey, who really cares if somebody gets killed? That's added value when you go back to your internet chatroom to sell the next trip, right? Wrong. Jim Abernethy (and Cheng and Mustard and others) have lied over and over and over again stating that sharks do not eat people, etc, etc. Therefore, Abernethy and anyone involved in selling and promoting the shark baiting trip on which Markus Groh
died can, and should be, sued. That's how you shut down shark baiters like Abernethy and promoters like Cheng and Mustard. You rearrange their personal finances so that it's no longer financially attractive to harass sharks. Take away the financial incentive, and the "shark huggers harassers" will quickly abandon their beloved sharks in order to find another cash cow to harass and exploit for $$$. | 
