Sydney magazine The Beast has apologised for publishing a misleading photo last month of a spearfisher holding a groper with a caption that read: “If you ever see this guy, you should consider stabbing him to death.”
The photo had accompanied an article titled “Marine Sanctuary Gathers Support”, which had called for the introduction of a marine sanctuary to run along Sydney’s coast from Clovelly to Camp Cove. See related story here.
The group pushing for the sanctuary, the South Head Marine Sanctuary Group, had claimed that eastern blue groper had virtually vanished from the Eastern Suburbs coastline.
The controversial photo used to illustrate the article showed a western blue groper that had been speared legally in WA to falsely illustrate the group’s point about illegal spearfishing for eastern groper in Sydney waters.
In its latest issue The Beast has printed an apology for the misleading image and inflammatory caption.
