Australians have “primitive phobia” of sharks and “19th century idea of the ocean”: Tim Winton
23 Jul 2010, 10:58 AM
Minivan News
“We have this 19th century idea of the ocean; we still have this idea that the ocean can absorb the punishment that we dish out,” says award-winning Australian writer Tim Winton. “We think we can just keep putting a few hooks in and we’ll pull something out.”
“People have begun to understand that the great fish like tuna and the marlins and the swordfish are in massive decline … but people don’t realise that sharks are among that cohort. In fact, sharks are really more threatened than whales or dolphins,” he says.
“I’m asking people to be conscious of the kind of footprint that we leave… It’d be a sad thing to bequeath to our children an empty, acidic ocean.”
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