Good fish ! Bad fish !

There is something weird about the attitude we exhibit towards the fish that swim in the sea.

On the one hand we are praising an eleven year old schoolgirl who caught a Mako shark on a six kilogram fishing line - fifty kilometres off the coast of Wollongong. She achieved this unassisted and as a consequence her name will be recorded in the record books and she will become a minor celebrity.

The Mako shark is considered aggressive and has a habit of turning on the boat from which it is hooked. This shark recorded a weight of I8I.I kilogram - when it's dead body was hoisted onto the scales for public display.

Compare that with the Japanese " scientific " harvesting of whales. Instead of using a line and bait, Japanese whalers fire a harpoon with an explosive power head into the body of the whale. Its a gory business - and the body is hauled aboard a factory ship and dismembered. It's hard to see where scientific research comes into the picture - because clearly the Japanese only want whales for the dinner table.

So - we seem to have a " good fish - bad fish " attitude to denizens of the deep.

It's OK to butcher sharks because they are bad lads - but whales are our friends.

There must be some sort of rationale in there somewhere. But just at the moment it is a little hard to see !