Hamish's+Opinion+Writing

toc 4th September 2009

**__ Megalodon is not extinct __**
Megalodon was a huge shark that appeared around thirty million years ago and disappeared about ten thousand years ago. It had teeth similar to those of a great white. Some people believe that it is extinct but others don’t. I do not believe that Megalodon is extinct because of the reasons written below. So in my opinion Megalodon is not extinct.

My first reason to support my belief is the fact that scientists have guessed that the lifestyles of Megalodon and the Great White were similar too. This means that if Megalodon does still exist then it would be very hard to find, let alone catch due to the habitat and the depth that it would swim. Also it would have the same types of prey, only much bigger, meaning it would spend a lot of time deep beneath the surface, hunting stealthily and unnoticed.

As well as that, scientists have just recently discovered a huge shark, the Megamouth, which lives close to the sea bed and has luminous lips to draw prey into its mouth. If a shark as big as the Megamouth has gone unnoticed for about two million years, maybe Megalodon can as well.

Also, there have been a number of reported sightings of Megalodon. One report is from a man named Zane Grey and his son Loren. Twice, he and his son were fishing and saw a huge shark emerge from the abyss. They went fishing often and knew about most sharks but they did not know this one. Unable to recognise this shark, they thought it must be Megalodon. Another report is from David Stead. In 1920, Stead saw a huge shark disrupting crayfish pots and fishing lines. Stead was at sea every day and knew many kinds of sharks, but he could not identify this one. He claimed it might have been Megalodon.

On the other hand, the claims of both Grey and Stead could have been exaggerated. They may have been imagining that they saw it and thought it was real, or it could have been a trick of the light. It might have even been the shadow of their boats reflected in an odd way in the water.

Also, the teeth of Megalodon seem to lead to the fact that it had a similar lifestyle to the Great White. As biologist Ben Roesch points out, Great Whites are often seen near the surface, yet no one has ever been certain of a Megalodon spotting and if its lifestyle is similar to that of a Great White, then it would almost certainly have been clearly seen at least once.

To conclude, I believe Megalodon is not extinct. But I do think it is fair that people don’t believe it exists any more. There is also the possibility that it has been spotted, it probably would have been taken as just a huge Great White. But as there is no proof of whether it does live or not, and nobody can be 100% sure that it is alive or dead, it is anyone’s decision, but I still believe that it lives.

**__ Anti-Smacking Law __**
Should smacking be illegal in New Zealand? I agree with the anti smacking law and I believe parents should too. Smacking just as a punishment or for discipline is cruel and can be very scary to a young child. Smacking happens all over the world and in some places children have even been smacked to the point of bruising. If a child is smacked throughout their childhood, they will not learn that it is wrong and will smack their child in the years to come. The anti smacking law was introduced by Sue Bradford from the Green Party in June 2007. In 2008, police attended 9 cases of smacking and 49 cases of minor acts of physical discipline.

First of all, when a child is smacked, it not only hurts them physically, but it can also have some psychological effects. When a child is smacked, it can break down their confidence and lead to the child being shy all of their life. It can also weaken the child emotional relationships and encourage the use of violence against others. For instance, if a child gets regularly smacked, it gives off the impression that violence against others is OK and the child teaches that to others. Smacking a child has also been linked with higher risks of alcoholism depression.

Also, I think children should have the same legal protection from violence as adults do. It isn’t right that adults can deliberately harm their children purely as punishment to them. It is wrong that an adult cannot be harmed legally, while a child can be smacked over and over without the parent getting in trouble with the police. In some countries, children are considered the most vulnerable members of society, yet they are the only society members that can be legally beaten.

Finally, only complete bans on smacking can enhance child protection. For example, in Germany, the number of children that have been reported to have been smacked to the point of bruising has shrunk from three in ten to three in one hundred since 1992 when the anti smacking law was introduced. Any country that tolerates smacking makes it easier to hide graver child abuse.

In conclusion, I agree with the anti smacking law and I believe it is a good way to enhance child protection and it decreases the chances of violence against others in future generations. Smacking is abusive and cruel to children.

I think shark hunting should be banned. It ignores the fact that sharks are living breathing creatures and hunting them has no good effect on humans. Shark hunting isn’t right. It destroys one of the world’s earliest known creatures and it helps some types of dangerous fish thrive. At the moment 32% of all shark species are endangered when 50 years ago it was only 12%.

Firstly, shark hunting affects fish that are lower in the food chain and decreases the amount of seafood that is safe to eat. Sharks eat the predatory fish that can be very dangerous to humans. This stops the predatory fish eating the shellfish and the other non predatory fish that are safe to eat. Without sharks in their way, the predatory fish thrive and eat the population of non predatory fish, leaving just the predatory fish let.

Secondly, most sharks are hunted only for their fins. The fins are put into a delicacy called shark fin soup and can be found on the menu in restaurants all over China and Japan. This is just killing sharks for no real reason, as the fins of a shark are completely tasteless.

Thirdly some sharks are hunted because of their size and the way they look. The three biggest sharks, the Whale shark, the Megamouth shark, and the Basking shark, all more than ten metres long, are hunted because they look dangerous when, in fact, they are completely harmless to humans. The Sand Tiger shark is hunted because it looks scary. It actually only attacks when it feels threatened, which does not happen often as it tries to avoid humans.

In conclusion, I think that shark hunting should be banned as sharks are one of the worlds most fascinating and exploited living creatures. Without sharks, we can’t have much seafood without risking being poisoned. As the most intelligent species on the planet, we should have realised this and stopped hunting sharks years ago.

__ **Bullying** __
I think bullying is when people want attention so they pick on other people and continuously intimidate and possibly hurt them and use that to make their victims do what the bully wants. It is also sending offensive text messages or emails through cyber bullying. Bullying can also be verbal abuse such as continuous name calling like “wimp”, or swearing at the victim and making people feel uncomfortable and scared by threatening others.

I think bullies usually just want attention but they can be people who were bullied when they were younger and trying to make people feel bad and scared through intimidation and threats. Bullies can sometimes even be cowards deep down inside and trying to hide that by hurting, intimidating and cyber bullying other people.

How I think people who are being bullied should do to deal with it. Number one: tell a teacher or other adult that you are being bullied and they will take care of it. Number two: ignore what the bully says to you about bashing you and beating you up if you tell on them and tell any way because they are probably just a coward and won’t do it.

As a society we should prevent bullies by giving a punishment to them such as in the case of school they could get week of detention every time they bully somebody. If it is happening out of school the parents should do something such as none of the bullies’ favorite things for a certain time period depending on what was happening. If it carries on the punishments will only keep getting worse and worse for the bully until he stops.