How would you handle this?

[Tigerman]

You can't see it? Dude, I understand how you feel about the GPO, but if you ever went to every dive shop in my city and got me banned from getting fills because I was doing something legal that you didn't like, I would get a lawyer and own your rear and every dive shop the joined in. When it was all said and done I'd own my own boat and compressor and a nice scuba trust fund to last me for the rest of your life.

Personally I can't see how this thread is oven on SB. It is a blatant example of REAL LIFE harassment, stalking, bullying.

Only little problem with that lawsuit is the fact that diveshops are private property and they can deny service to anyone they dont want in there, for any reason they want and as long as the story told cant be proven to be false, theres not much to sue anyone for..

 

[chrpai]

I said what I have to say. Now realize, I understand how they feel about the GPO and I would encourage changing the laws to protect the species in this location. From a political perspective it seems like it would be an easy thing to get a politician involved from a feel good perspective and that very few would protest such a change.

I also feel that reporting the facebook post to the authorities is likely to have positive results.

In all, I would support those two things. But if you go around town dirtying my name for something that is legal, you better watch the heck out for what is going to come your way.

 

[Mike]

This kid that killed the octopus, and bragged about it having eggs, and that he would be doing this daily, purposely showed himself as someone without a conscience, or remorse for a bad act. It also shows a person that enjoys killing for the sake of killing, and likes people to see his handiwork.

There is no doubt in my mind that if this kid didn't have a facebook page, or any other social media, or face to face ability to show off to his friends with "look what I did", he would never touch another octopus. The little puke craves attention and relishes in the 'admiration' of his 'friends' ooing and ahhing and squeeling over his manly accomplishments of being the great undersea hunter, going and doing what others fear to tread.

He no doubt was one of those kids who got a trophy just for showing up when he was a kid, told too many times how special a boy he was for being nothing but ordinary at best, and now has discovered social media as his personal ego reward system to keep it going.

In the old days, he simply would have been handed a beating and it would have probably fixed him, taught him a lesson that there are consequences for his actions, and changed his ways. Now he's a little 'system player', playing the system to his advantage, getting away with it and having his poor choices be rewarded by his moron facebook friends. If the dive shops do black list him, that will be the first abrupt assault to his ego and maybe create enough face to face discussions with people in the real world instead of the cyber world, will change his mind on being such an entitled little puke.

 

[CindyMac]

It's been my experience, working in medicine that those who are really mean or nasty just can't seem to get killed off, despite all the stupid things they do. ( like drug dealers,and plain old jerks) unfortunately, Darwin seems to save them for some sort of genetic diversity.

I have to agree with you, tracydr. It's frustrating to see that you just can't kill off nasty, but the genuinely nice people just don't seem to be able to hang on, despite our very best efforts. Not that we don't give our best to the mean and nasty people - it's just so frustrating!

I've probably watched too much "Criminal Minds" and shows like it, but I see, at the very least, a narcissistic personality. Budding psychopath.

 

[shmuggy]

Contact a state legislator and see what can be done so this is no longer legal. Your state wildlife and game department may also be intersted in hearing about this and can point out a synpathetic state legislator.

---------- Post Merged at 11:27 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:27 AM ----------

Contact a state legislator and see what can be done so this is no longer legal. Your state wildlife and game department may also be intersted in hearing about this and can point out a synpathetic state legislator.

 

[danvolker]

What do we get in an area like this PNW divesite, or our BHB, where we are years away from Legal Protection status, if we don't create "commonly accepted rules" treated as "common laws", and if we don't promote "common sense" in the people using the resource?
We end up losing the choices and what we had once desired. In situations like this, you can't wait for the LAW to think and act for you. Do you know what you get when you LET the LAW and the Government do your thinking and acting for you? You get a future and a "choice like this:

 

[cocoajoe]

Haven't read all the responses but I'm surprised nobody picked up on this punk putting a firecracker in the snakes mouth. Isn't this symptomatic of how some psycho's start out? Does Dennis Radar (BTK strangler), Jim Jones, Henry Lee Lucas ring a bell?

Studies have shown that individuals who enjoy or are willing to inflict harm on animals are more likely to do so to humans. One of the known warning signs of certain psychopathologies, including antisocial personality disorder, is a history of torturing pets and small animals. According to the New York Times:



Alan R. Felthous reported in his paper "Aggression Against Cats, Dogs, and People" (1980) that

"A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well, including one patient who had murdered a boy."<sup>[4]

Also...In the United States, since 2010, it has been a federal offense to create or distribute "obscene" depictions of "living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians ... subjected to serious bodily injury".[8] This statute replaced an overly broad 1999 statute[9] which was found unconstitutional in United States v. Stevens.</sup>



​

 

[DaleC]

In all, I would support those two things. But if you go around town dirtying my name for something that is legal, you better watch the heck out for what is going to come your way.

I would hope that as you were walking around feeling so offended, someone would point out the obvious: when you...

1. Harvest a GPO from a popular dive site claiming in was a female sitting on eggs
2. Post your exploits, along with multiple images of non hunting related violence against other animals and along with racial slurs on FB with public settings

...that you are dirtying your own name. What Bob did was no more than what many investigative journalists do: make others aware of what the young man projected publicly himself.



As for the sexing issue:

The young man himself at the time claimed "It was sitting on eggs, now it's not" (or words to that effect). True? False? Trying to get Bob's goat? No one really knows - however he said it, so if there is confusion the fault lies with him, not Bob. Could Bob be making that conversation up? Perhaps. But when I think of what I know of Bob, both IRL and on the net, and what the young man portrayed of himself online, I tend to believe Bob.

However, not withstanding that:

You cannot tell a male from a female GPO when observing it in a den.
The young man himself again (in later interviews) states he pulled the octo out and then felt around inside to ensure there were no eggs - Which means at the time of harvesting he did not know whether it was a male or a female.
You also cannot just pull a GPO (of that size) out of a den. There are chemical and mechanical means, and a physical act one can perform - but all of those are harmful to the GPO in the process. Which means the young man extracted an unsexed GPO from a den and, post extraction, checked to see if there were eggs present. The question of course being - If there were eggs present, would the GPO have been in any condition after release to again care for those eggs.

Lastly for Zen Diver: If you knew anything about GPO's... They do not give birth and you cannot necessarily tell if a GPO has been tending eggs by observing it dead on a beach or in the back of a P/U truck. GPO's do change color and show signs of wasting but that is because they spend roughly six months caring for their eggs, without leaving the den site or eating. If you observe a mother at the end of the cycle it will appear grey and wasted - if you observe one at the beginning of the cycle it will not. Using gross visual characteristics to determine whether a GPO is a brooding female would be prone to error.

I suggest this book by one of the leading GPO researchers: http://www.amazon.ca/Super-Suckers-Pacific-Octopus-Cephalopods/dp/1550174665 Jim also gives a good lecture about them.

 

[tracydr]

Chrpai, I tend to agree with you more often than not, but not on this.

My congressman growing up was Charlie Wilson. It turned out there was a lot none of us knew about him. One of the things that really struck me though was the story of how he entered politics-- his neighbor when he was a kid, who was some local politician, killed his dog by feeding it ground glass. The second thing young Charlie did in revenge, was to the make shuttle runs back and forth to the poor parts of his town on election day, load up as many people as wanted to vote in his truck, and then tell them what the guy did as they were going in. The guy lost by a landslide.

If someone is going from dive shop to dive shop threatening the owners there if they don't stop supplying gas to the kid, that's harassement. If someone widely relates the actions and attitude of one who lives among them, and then lets people make their own decision about whether to encourage or discourage the person's behavior, then to me that's a social system at work.

Where is the evidence that NWGD is " threatening dive shops?" he went around, showed the photos and the dive shops were free to choose what they wanted to do.
I do believe this kid shows, at the very least, some antisocial tendencies.
For anybody interested in this learning sort of thing, I highly recommend the book " The Sociopath Next Door".
Also, antisocial is a personality disorder. It is not equivalent with a sociopath but they do share many traits.

 

[debajo agua]

Sounds like sociopath. They are incapable of empathy and have no conscious. If this is indeed the case, there's nothing you can teach him. The eggs comment summed up this young man's world view i. e. (the miracle of life means very little to him). What a shame this attitude is shared by so many. Inuit society has a simple solution for sociopaths, they take them on a hunting trip and the sociopath doesn't make it back home.