Whale behaviour: perhaps some should be relabeled sharks?

About a week ago, I witnessed and commented on an attack by a non-whale on a whale. The whale was accused of some wrongdoing, but it wasn't made clear what this wrongdoing was. Within the hour, another whale joined the attack.

I have read and analysed the attack and the comments, and there was nothing of substance in this attack. That doesn't mean per se that the attacked whale is free of all blemishes, I have no way of knowing that, I just know that this particular attack was based on nothing. A follow-up posting with more evidence was promised, but it hasn't materialised yet. To be more blunt: the posting had all the qualities of a chickenshit attack from one whale on another whale through some arsekissing non-whale.

Another thing that bothered me was that some very reasonable and non-abusive comments were flagged into oblivion by a third whale. Flagging is, of course, just as much part of free speech as writing a comment, but the huge difference in voting power made it look like censorship.

I am relatively new here, and I don't claim to know all the reasons behind what happened, but one thing I do know: if I would have read this altercation a few days into my membership here, I would have gone elsewhere. Fast.

I have met too many nice people here to do so now, but I was again tempted to leave when I noticed two whales giving many huge and valuable upvotes to what I would classify as the inane ramblings of a known scam artist. To be honest, I haven't seen him scam on Steemit itself, and maybe he walks the line these days, but it still bothers me.

So, I have two friendly requests to the whales, or at least some of them:
First, if you must fight among yourselves, could you do it somewhere else? You're scaring away people.
Second, if you must do the things you do here, could you do them in a more open and honest way, or at least give some reasons for doing what you do? Some of it is very confusing, and whales being confusing is not good for Steemit, what with many people looking up to you.

As always: I may be wrong. Comments most welcome.

Image by Terry Goss, from Wikimedia Commons under a GNU Free Documentation License