When crocs attack

An unpleasant end for Scot Arthur Brooker who was this week eaten by a giant crocodile in northern Queensland. An Australian resident and Vietnam veteran, Arthur was checking his crab pots while on a caravanning holiday when he disappeared. So far investigators have found his wrist watch, sandals, camcorder as well as some ominously large crocodile slide marks.

(A second sad crocodile story also this week was a seven year old boy who broke into a zoo in Alice Springs and fed over $6,000 worth of rare reptiles to 'Terry' the salt water crocodile.)

Anyhow, it's sparked a debate about whether Queensland should again start culling crocodiles, which it last did in the 1950s. (Which incidentally almost wiped out valuable Barramundi fish stocks due to an explosion in Catfish stocks). According to local MP Bob Katter "nature is completely out of whack... there has to be culling, human beings are dying here".

To Bob it's all quite clear: "The only way I'd like to see that croc is through the tip of the foresight and the shoulders of the rear sight of my rifle... and if there is any doubt as to which crocodile it is, they should shoot every crocodile in that area ... take out the lot."

In a similar vein, Liberal Senator Ian Macdonald intervened with "if human beings are congregating in an area then all crocodiles should be removed".

It's a pity Steve Irwin isn't around to give some perspective any more. It's clearly a very horrendous time for Arthur's family but perhaps some of these gung-ho MPs should reflect that maybe it is humans that are out of whack with nature.

After all humans might take a little more care about where they congregate. Final word courtesy of Terry of Lindfield: "Shooting the crocs seems a bit unfair... why not just feed them the members of the New South Wales Government?"