When is a shark an “it”? When it’s in The New York Times

Sharks get little love from the mainstream media. Whenever the media reports on a shark it is usually due to a shark “attack.”

The New York Times is no exception. It recently reported on a human/shark encounter in waters about a hundred miles south of Costa Rica.

The headline reads ‘She Could Have Killed Me’: Scientist Survives Shark Bite to His Head.

Dr. Mauricio Hoyos, a marine scientist encountered a Galápagos shark and soon found his head in the shark’s jaws, but only for an instant. As the article reads:

He heard a cracking sound. “But it was just pressure,” he said. “As soon as she felt my skull, she released me. She opened and swam away.”

Blood and water filled his mask, which the shark had knocked askew. Its teeth had severed the air hoses on his scuba gear.

Unable to see, he sensed the shark was moving away when he noticed its retreating shadow.

This scientist knew he had encountered a female shark. Hence the use of “she” when he spoke of her. But the Times reporter insisted on referring to the shark as “it” as you may have noticed in the very next sentence.

What’s curious is that this is counter to the paper’s own style guide for animals, which I quote here (from 2016):

animals. Call an animal it, not he or she, unless its sex has been mentioned or it has been personalized with a name: The dog was lost; it howled. Marmaduke was lost; he howled. The dog, which was lost, howled. Adelaide, who was lost, howled. The bull tossed his horns.

It could be that the reporter felt the gender could not be verified — though I would feel confident trusting this scientist to get it right. It could also be that there is an inherent desire to make this attack some more life-threatening than it actually way — it’s a much easier to fear the “it” of a predator than the “she” of a shark that was apparently nonplussed over having been tagged.

According to the article:

He interpreted the behavior of the female shark that he encountered last week as a surprise response to being tagged.
“She was heading down and never saw me, and then she felt the puncture” of the tag, Dr. Hoyos said. “It was a defensive bite. She wanted me to stay away from her personal space.”

The scientist was on the side of the shark through the entire interview. His final quotation is: “I have been doing this for 30 years,” he said. “She was scared also. It was not her fault.”

As writers, we weld great power through words used and words withheld.