FathomOz

The shark vanished a split second after this picture was exposed.

This Sea Frontiers (a former USA magazine) story was published 1990 -  and was largely re-written by the editors.

Despite the species making a dramatic come-back, well-meaning environmentalists in Australia persisted with a  “there is less than 500 sharks left in the wild” theme to the gullible media.

In truth – there was no accurate way of counting sharks outside of regularly visited dive sites.

To suggest that these sharks could only be seen at a scuba shop dive site was a bit of a stretch of the imagination.  Yet the media bought it, over and over again.

Mass reporting without proper knowledge of the subject.