The plight of baby humpback whale Colin, stranded in a Sydney waterway, captured the heart of the Australian public last week and generated a media frenzy - print, TV, radio, online, blogs and more. Within days you could even visit a special Colin website featuring musical youtube tributes, a petition to PM Kevin Rudd and (because we simply can’t escape commercialism) a range of Colin 08 merchandise.

The story split public opinion. Before long, lines were being drawn in the sand (or perhaps more fittingly, the sea). Were you a tie-dye wearing, bleeding heart hippie wanting to waste tax payers money on pointless rescue attempts? Or were you a greed-driven, cold-hearted cynic choosing economic rationalism over the survival of an innocent creature?

Regardless of my own personal ambivalence towards ‘poor Colin’, I found the saga fascinating. The more I read, the more I realised just how much a dash of subjectivity can change a story. Over the course of a week, Colin went from being (with all due respect) just a whale, to a symbol for pro-euthanasia, bureaucratic ineptitude, economic rationalism and even national pride.

Unfortunately despite everyone from politicians to animal rights groups to the Average Joe putting in their two cents, the passion of the people could not keep Colin alive.

But it sure did sell a lot of papers.

- Jacqui Flint