Killer Australian shark will not be hunted: police

Jared from FairTradeSG sent in this article. He says, "A balanced article, although the headline didn't do it justice." Agreed!

Great news from the Australian authorities.

Killer Australian shark will not be hunted: police
AFP - Sunday, December 28, Yahoo! Singapore

SYDNEY (AFP) - - Australian authorities said Sunday they will not attempt to hunt down a shark believed to have killed a swimmer, as reports said the victim would not have wanted the predator to die.

Fremantle Water Police, who were Sunday searching the area for any remains, said there would be no attempt to hunt the shark.

"There's no way of knowing which shark it would be," Senior Sergeant Greg Trew said. "We could hunt down every shark from here to eternity without knowing whether we had the right one."

Reports said that Guest had a deep respect for the ocean and its hazards and would not have wanted the animal killed.

"I have always had an understanding with my wife that if a shark or ocean accident caused my death then so be it," he wrote on a fishing website forum in 2004, national news agency AAP said.

The sentiment was echoed by an unnamed family friend who was quoted as telling Western Australia's Sunday Times that Guest was aware that those using the ocean were "in their (sharks') territory".

"He was a man of the sea. We are just glad he went on the ocean. It was his passion," the friend said.

Leading shark researcher Rory McAuley said despite the idea perpetuated by Hollywood movies such as "Jaws" that sharks would repeatedly attack, this view was not held up by science.

"The old theory of the rogue shark that gets a taste for humans and repeatedly attacks has really been discredited over the past 30 years," said McAuley, a senior research scientist with the state Department of Fisheries.