"Rabid greenie bastards" attack 14 year old boy for fishing

Teen reels from backlash
By Peter Michael

November 29, 2006 11:00pm

Article from: Queensland

ALEX Johnston does not know what all the fuss is about.

But the Cairns teenager is reeling from a flood of death threats and hate mail after his world-record 496kg black marlin catch on Sunday.

"Some of it is pretty nasty," the 14-year-old said yesterday.

One writer hoped he died "a slow torturous death". Another called for him "to be fed to the sharks instead of the dead marlin".

One wrote: "What can you say about these kind of unevolved, knuckle-dragging barbarians. They should be culled."

The schoolboy proudly displayed the catch of the decade ? a 5m-long (1091lb) female black marlin ? at a public weigh-in on Sunday.

He yesterday returned to Cairns ? and a storm of controversy ? after towing the dead marlin outside the Great Barrier Reef to feed it to tiger sharks.

The angry backlash against the new junior world record-holder has stunned his family and the far north game fishing fraternity.

His dad and game boat skipper Graham Johnston yesterday slammed the comments as coming from a bunch of "mad, rabid greenie bastards".

"We catch and release nearly 99 per cent of our fish," Mr Johnston said.

"And then we kill one in a blue moon because it is a world record and we have to put up with this dribble."

"Are we supposed to apologise for everything we do? I don't think so."

He said some of the threats sent to his family home had been over the top.

"I think a lot of it is jealousy," he said.

"They live in cities. They sit at home gawking at the web and they feel embittered and frustrated because their dad never took them fishing.

"Our conscience is clear.

"There is no retirement village for old marlin."

"When they get old the shark pack catches up with them and eats them alive.

"They don't lie down in sandy patch in the sunshine, they don't die a peaceful death, as soon as they slow down they get eaten.

"This is an achievement that far eclipses anything else that has been done before.

"And we can happily live with fact 99 per cent of marlin get let go and the odd one gets weighed."