| Details for Shrake Swarms Surge in the Sea! |
| Summary: | The reduced presence of Muggle ships in the English Channel has inadvertently led to a population boom for the Shrake population, which is having a devastating effect on the Muggle community. |
| Date: | December 2, 1941 |
| Location: | N/A |
| Related: | — |
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JERSEY — This hilly, rocky island is currently at the center of an awful lot of fishy business — and the Ministry of Magic is here to put an end to it. A months in advance of their annual spawning season, shrake are everywhere in the channel, shredding the local fishermans' nets, and bringing hardship to a muggle territory already besieged by underwater boats and other contraptions of the British and German Navies. Atalanta Gibbon, Director of the Beast Division for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, is reportedly concerned that the high activity may lead to a direct assault on a muggle sooner or later, and has come out to personally oversee efforts to bring this area back under control. While the Daily Prophet can confirm sightings of the Director on Jersey, she declined to give direct comment.
Thus far, none of the shrake appear to have been directly and positively witnessed by a muggle, but the high reports of Muggle fishers returning with bits of bone floating in their damaged nets have the Ministry on edge. Obliviators are standing by; one confided a rumor that the Office of Misinformation is laying low on this one, for concern that the desperate Muggle Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, will beg for assistance in the retaking of the islands from the German military.
Whatever the case, it is certainly true that getting things in and out of the Channel Islands by means other than Floo or Apparating are fraught with danger at the moment. While recovered spines from the shrake are being sent back to the mainland for use in potions, there is reportedly talk inside the Ministry of simply donating the meat in disguised form to a hungry local population; these alleged internal discussions are heated debates, with both sides claiming the support of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in this matter.
While the shrake population boom seems to have its epicenter in the English Channel, there are higher reports of the fish throughout the seas, and sources at the Ministry unofficially encourage seasoned magical anglers to safely build up their domestic supply of fish and chips, potion ingredient stores, and take the opportunity to teach children about this interesting and highly successful specimen of experimental magical breeding.