THINK ''shark'' and most of us probably imagine eating one, or being eaten by one.

But not West Australian writer Tim Winton, who will be in Melbourne next week to campaign for an end to shark fishing - with a particular plea to stop the export of shark fins to Asia.

Tim Winton, patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, at Fremantle's Fishing Boat Harbour. Picture: Tony Ashby

''I'm 50 later this year and I've spent 48 years of my life either in the water, or under it, and as a kid I never saw many sharks,'' Winton said of the ''hysterical apprehension''' many Australians have of sharks.

''I don't want to sound like the rustic from the west,'' he said from his home in Fremantle, near where he spends up to three hours a day surfing, ''but I've always associated Melbourne with dining sophistication [so] it's amazing it's possible to sell shark there and call it flake. That's got to be one of the great retail rorts of history, up there with selling 'clean coal'. They are selling something that doesn't exist.''