South African Poacher Gets Air-Jawsed

[Comrade Tortoise]

BWAHAHAHAHA!

By Stewart Maclean 11:47AM BST 25 Sep 2010
Khanyisile Momoza, 29, was attacked as he harvested valuable perlemoen shells in the waters near Gansbaai in South Africa.
The fisherman was among a group of 12 poachers who had tried to swim to safety after spotting the shark in shallow waters.
A friend of Mr Momoza, who witnessed the attack, said: "There was screaming and crying. We just swam, we didn't look back.
"We were swimming in a group but he was a bit behind us.
"It jumped out of the water with him and then it took him down."

The attack took place on Tuesday between Dyer Island and Pearly Beach, east of Cape Town.
In an interview with the Weekend Argus local newspaper, the victim's friend told how the poaching group had left the beach at 6am and swum for two hours before reaching the island three miles offshore, where they began hunting for perlemoen shellfish.
The men were swimming back to shore with their catch when the great white approached.
The survivors admitted they had been too scared for their own lives to help the stricken swimmer and raced back to dry land.
Once ashore the group alerted authorities to the tragedy.
Illegal harvesting of perlemoen is big business in South Africa, where the valuable shellfish are common along coastal areas.
The molluscs' fleshy insides are considered a delicacy similar to oysters, and either served raw or cooked in seafood dishes.
But widespread farming of the shells has sparked fears the population could plummet.
In 2007 South African authorities listed the species, also known as abalone, as endangered with the global wildlife protection body CITES.
The restrictions were loosened in July this year, although it remains illegal to harvest perlemeon without a licence.
However hundreds of local fishermen are believed to continue to work in the illegal trade.
Many poor workers risk arrest or injury to hunt for the wild shells, whose meat can be worth up to £25 a kilo.
The shark attack victim's friend told the Argus his group went perlemoen fishing around once a week and needed the money to provide food for their families.
Gans Bay, known in Afrikaans as Gansbaai, is famously the centre of South Africa's great white shark population.
In recent years some experts have warned the increase in commercial "shark dive tourism" has encouraged great whites to inhabit shallower waters.
Every day hundreds of tourists pay to experience a close encounter with the creatures, which are enticed with food to come close to boats.
Some fear the sharks are now commonly inhabiting waters where humans are more likely to be swimming or working.
The poacher is the second person this year to be killed by a shark in South Africa.
In January tourist Lloyd Skinner was killed by a great white as he swam a few metres off the beach in Fish Hoek near Cape Town.
Shocked holiday-makers watched from the shore as the 47-year-old was pulled underwater.
Rescuers later searched for the Zimbabwean's body but found only his goggles.

It is sad that these fishermen have to poach to make ends meet, but god damn it illegal fishing is one of the reasons that the oceans world wide are in collapse... a rather big one, actually. Even large corporations falsify their catch counts. So, I have a little sympathy, but this was going to happen eventually, and frankly... they swam two miles in water full of great white sharks, up at the surface looking like fucking seals. What the fuck did they think was going to happen? This guy is no more a victim than a person who cuts their arm off when horseplaying around a god damn band-saw.

[rhoenix]

It is sad that these fishermen have to poach to make ends meet, but god damn it illegal fishing is one of the reasons that the oceans world wide are in collapse... a rather big one, actually. Even large corporations falsify their catch counts. So, I have a little sympathy, but this was going to happen eventually, and frankly... they swam two miles in water full of great white sharks, up at the surface looking like fucking seals. What the fuck did they think was going to happen? This guy is no more a victim than a person who cuts their arm off when horseplaying around a god damn band-saw.

Yes, how dare he just keep illegally poaching for the feeble excuse of making ends meet? Obviously he should have checked the legality of such a thing through the internet connection on his smartphone first, and then hopped on a plane to move to where more jobs were. After making sure his Armani suit was properly tailored first, of course - one wants to make a good first impression.

Less sarcastically - their way of livelihood is now declared illegal, and there aren't more viable (not to mention legal, let alone easier) means for them to make a living. According to the article you posted, they have to swim two hours to get to work each day, and their commute home is a bit more dangerous than traffic here. If there were easier means of making a living there, there would be fewer "illegal poachers" in the area.

Or, to put the sentiment another way: "HAHAHAHA! Stupid 99% protesters, getting maced, arrested, and pepper-sprayed by cops! Don't you know you're not supposed to taunt authority? Go get a job and quit whining, you lazy unemployed bums!"

[Dark Silver]

Ben.....

There is a thing called Human Empathy. Was this guy doing something illegal? Yeah, he was. But did he deserve to get killed?

Nope.

[frigidmagi]

50$ a pound? No wonder they were doing it, most people in that area are living off less a day. This shit is gonna keep happening until we put an end to the demand.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Ben.....

There is a thing called Human Empathy. Was this guy doing something illegal? Yeah, he was. But did he deserve to get killed?

Nope.

Not for the illegal poaching. But the guy was playing Discovery Channel Roulette and lost. This is not a case like in the 99% protests where some other individual has to make a choice to do something reprehensible. We are dealing with an animal here. The responsibility is solely on the idiot.

In this case, the guy knew there were sharks (South Africa is big on making sure everyone knows they are there, and what they like to chew on) and he decided to swim two miles over open ocean to an island--said islands happen to be where great whites like to hunt--hang around in the great white's optimum striking depth, and look for all the world like a sweet delicious seal.

There were relatively inexpensive precautions that the guy could have taken. Using a rubber raft for example (hell, he and his buddies, at the rate they get for the mollusks, can pool their resources and buy one), probably would have mitigated the shark problem. Why? Because when you panic and try to swim away, you look and sound to all the shark's senses like a god damn seal... and the locals know this.

Do something dumb like that, and yeah. You have earned a Darwin Award slot if you dont have kids.

[Josh]

The meat itself is worth upwards of fifty a pound sure, but that doesn't mean that the actual poachers see anywhere near that profit. They may be making just enough to make the work very lucrative for their poverty-stricken area and thus worth the risk, while not making enough to do it in a safer fashion such as by buying a boat.

The organizations that buy and distribute the poached goods are far more worthy targets of wrath, and you'll never catch any of execs in those outfits sticking their precious carcasses in shark-infested waters. These companies are utilizing expendable labor and should get squashed for it.

Not that they will.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I have said it on SDN and will say it here. There is rational risk, and stupid risk. Something not mentioned in the article is that the Island they were swimming to and from is an active seal colony, and this area is the home of one of the largest great white populations on earth. And they did so while looking for all the world like a terminally stupid seal. The attack probability was not "Probability of being seen by a shark, multiplied by the probability that the shark gets curious and takes a nibble" like it is for swimmers at the beach. It is "probability of being seen by a shark, because the shark DOES think you are actually food".

If a person cannot afford the safety equipment to get them from point A to point B safely, then they should not travel from point A to point B. It is no different than someone climbing up Mt. Everest with insufficient cold weather gear, or without a tent. If someone dies that way, they die because of their own stupidity, and Schadenfreude applies.

[Josh]

The picture of acceptable risk becomes very different when you have a family to feed, Aly. Desperate times, desperate people, insane risks. Anger and schadenfreude both apply better to the people creating these circumstances and exploiting these circumstances.

[rhoenix]

I have said it on SDN and will say it here. There is rational risk, and stupid risk. Something not mentioned in the article is that the Island they were swimming to and from is an active seal colony, and this area is the home of one of the largest great white populations on earth. And they did so while looking for all the world like a terminally stupid seal. The attack probability was not "Probability of being seen by a shark, multiplied by the probability that the shark gets curious and takes a nibble" like it is for swimmers at the beach. It is "probability of being seen by a shark, because the shark DOES think you are actually food".

If a person cannot afford the safety equipment to get them from point A to point B safely, then they should not travel from point A to point B. It is no different than someone climbing up Mt. Everest with insufficient cold weather gear, or without a tent. If someone dies that way, they die because of their own stupidity, and Schadenfreude applies.

Exactly, Alyrium. Just like the 99% protesters deserve to be pepper-sprayed, arrested and held without bail, and have their personal effects smashed or destroyed. Because the protesters look like vagrants, and vagrants deserve what they get for disturbing the peace.

Look, I can tell you want to feel superior to the "stupid people" here - and it's easy to do from a first-world nation where one doesn't have to swim two hours each way through shark-infested waters to make a living. If you want to call them stupid, fine - show that the fishermen have a better and more lucrative option available to feed themselves and their families.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Exactly, Alyrium. Just like the 99% protesters deserve to be pepper-sprayed, arrested and held without bail, and have their personal effects smashed or destroyed. Because the protesters look like vagrants, and vagrants deserve what they get for disturbing the peace.

And completely ignore what I said before about some other human having to make a moral choice, and the fact that the 99% protesters are A) Not Vagrants and B) Vagrants are often not vagrants by choice.

Look, I can tell you want to feel superior to the "stupid people" here - and it's easy to do from a first-world nation where one doesn't have to swim two hours each way through shark-infested waters to make a living. If you want to call them stupid, fine - show that the fishermen have a better and more lucrative option available to feed themselves and their families.

The simple expedient of using a boat. Yes, even the poorest of the poor fishermen can afford to buy or build a boat from locally available materials. I can show you pictures of impoverished fishermen in the congo who have boats. This is not the congo. This is South Africa, which by african standards is fairly well off. If he WAS dirt poor, he would be doing this every day, rather than once a week. All the hallmarks of otherwise having employment--perhaps even as a legal fisherman. Most poachers also do it because the profit margins are relatively high, and the risk of getting caught is low. This is true for all manner of poaching, from turtles to elephants. And they will all tell the same self-serving story that they are doing it to put food on the table. There is simply not enough evidence (and I have looked) to support the conclusion that he is in severe poverty. If it could be shown that he was, I might have a bit of sympathy. As it stands, as far as I can tell, he was an idiot. He swam to a seal colony, doing his best impression of a seal, despite the constant warnings of his government, and simple local knowledge that great whites hunt at seal colonies and like to eat seals, and things that look like seals.

Would you be winging if some person risked not wearing a seat-belt day after day while driving aggressively to work, and ended up getting into an accident that killed him and only him as a result? You are a nice guy, you might. I am not that nice.

[LadyTevar]

Ok, guys, simmer down. You're getting way to heated about this.


For myself, I see Karma in Action here. A man doing something he knew was illegal gets killed while doing it. It's not Darwin, it's not something really to laugh at, but it is something that feels ironically justified.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I will note:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/world ... alone.html

The article is a wee long, but here are some tasty bits.

“We just take a small amount, maybe five kilos — just enough to survive,” Mr. Crouse said sorrowfully. “Just enough for the wife and kids.”

Standing on the beach in his wetsuit, beside a beat-up sedan with more rust than Joe Namath’s throwing arm, he paints a convincing portrait of destitution. Or he does until Inspector Sandor Nagy of the South African Police Service observes that his real car is a hopped-up Volkswagen with a top-of-the-line engine. The rust bucket, the inspector says, is a throwaway, a painless loss should the police seize it.

“They all say that,” Inspector Nagy said of Mr. Crouse’s protestations. “But they all drive BMWs. Look at the cars they’re driving and the life they’re living. I don’t think it’s for the family.”

They all fucking say it...

http://www.servamus.co.za/index.php?opt ... view&id=72

Abalone poaching is an extremely lucrative business, and a large abalone can sell for hundreds of rands. According to Johan Erasmus of MCM, divers usually get paid R280 - R300/kg of shucked abalone, which is usually only three sized abalone. In just one night of successful poaching, divers could earn hundreds of thousands of rands. Buyers pay up to R600 for one 500 g can of processed meat. Poachers with oxygen tanks can stay below the water longer and can take out up to 40 kg each in one shift.

The exchange rate is such that even swimming, carrying 5 kg or so, once a week, a poacher can make around about $10k a year, which is really good for S. Africa. So good in fact that they are in the top 20% in terms of income.