Thank you... whoever you are

Someone asked me recently if I was watching Discovery Channel's "Shark Week," knowing that I was a keen fan of the beasties. I let them know that no, I was not, because they persisted in portraying sharks as viscious human predators rather than the unfortunate victims of man's quest to dominate and rape the oceans of their riches.

I have no idea who Gilbert Arenas is (I think he plays for the Washington DC NBA team, whose mascot/team symbol I don't know since they changed it from the Bullets - hehehe) but he apparently has a blog, which I learned about on the Washington Post's Celebritology Chat with Liz Kelly, and on this blog he posted the following missive about sharks, with which I happen to agree:

"There Are No Such Thing as Shark Attacks
I know this is random, but I just want to clear this up for people out there.
There are these things called shark attacks, but there is no such thing as a shark attack. I have never seen a real shark attack.

I know you’re making a weird face as you’re reading this. OK people, a shark attack is not what we see on TV and what people portray it as.

We’re humans. We live on land.

Sharks live in water.

So if you’re swimming in the water and a shark bites you, that’s called trespassing. That is called trespassing. That is not a shark attack.

A shark attack is if you’re chilling at home, sitting on your couch, and a shark comes in and bites you; now that’s a shark attack. Now, if you’re chilling in the water, that is called invasion of space. So I have never heard of a shark attack.

When I see on the news where it’s like, “There have been 10 shark attacks,” I’m like, “Hey, for real?! They’re just running around? Sharks are walking now, huh! We live on the land, we don’t live underwater.”

He gets it right... so why does the Discovery Channel have to continue to garner ratings (which I've heard haven't been so hot lately) by using the pseudo-Jaws music and focusing on the rare cases when a man-shark interaction results in injury or death to the man? The opposite result - and Asian hunger for shark-fin soup - is emptying our oceans of these majestic creatures that have been in existence in some form since the time of the dinosaurs. I'd like to see them show the documentary that came out recently on the impact that the longline and shark-finning fisheries are having on shark populations (name I can't remember right now)

Man, if they just made soapboxes a little taller, I might not be able to get up on them so easily. Cheers to you Mr. Arenas, whoever you are, for your keen insight into shark attacks.