Tormented cries from mother as her cub is butchered and eaten... Does it pull at your heart strings? Mine, too.
A rally of cries about a shark attack generally bring something less warm and fuzzy, something closer to terror and visions of a nasty end for some surfer. No surfer this time.
The 20th Century's most significant marine find became surf and turf himself at a recent feast in a village off the coast of Donsol in the Bicol Region of the Philippines.
More than a rare sighting, this is the 41st specimen ever known. A massive Megamouth, a rare breed of filter-feeding shark, was caught and killed then served up to locals eager to consume the traditional delicacy despite protests from the World Wildlife Federation.
While WWF tried to convey the magnitude of the slaying the world has to wonder if more should have been done. This was more than a rare sighting, this specimen was the 41st ever recorded of Megachasma pelagios.
Panda! Not this time. It was a deliverate ploy to get you to ponder your feelings on slugs vs. bunnies. If it is what enticed you to take a peek, however, perhaps we need to rethink our treatment of the ugly ducklings out there.
We tend to favour cute and cuddly. Dark grey, menacing distant cousins of Jaws don't bring out the maternal instinct quite as readily. Had this been a sighting of a rare panda set to be slaughtered to make soup with his paws, I'm sure Megamouth would have made both CNN and the BBC.
Might isn't right, but something more than sway was needed here.
