'Legacy' - The Words of Peter Benchley

[Hawkwood]

Dan, I wasn't addressing that comment to you - sorry if it came across that way. The movie was way more over the top than the book.

 

[drbill]

So he felt bad after he "rang the bell". Still, I would guess less than one half of one percent of all the people that saw JAWS, saw or read ANY of the shark conservationist work product.

I can say I have never read or seen ANY of these in your list, but have seen all the JAWS films multiple times.

And the first statement is Benchley's fault? No, it is the fault of those who prefer the shocking and spectacular over the facts! Benchley did try to compensate for the PUBLIC's reaction to Jaws.

As for watching all the Jaws films multiple times... I couldn't get past the second one. I stopped diving after seeing the first Jaws. A few years later while working for Jean-Michel Cousteau, he saw me putting on my wetsuit and knew I had stopped diving because of the first movie. He asked what got me back in the water. I said I had recently seen Jaws II.

Does one hate Cousteau for dynamiting his way into the Blue Hole and other early disasters? Or does one look at what Cousteau LEARNED over his years in the water and the conservation and education work he did over the decades? Benchley also LEARNED from the mistake of Jaws.

 

[danvolker]

And the first statement is Benchley's fault? No, it is the fault of those who prefer the shocking and spectacular over the facts! Benchley did try to compensate for the PUBLIC's reaction to Jaws.

The reality is that this IS the world we live in. Best proof is our American TV News....it is pure sensationalism for ratings, it is corporate controlled so it will ONLY cover what will not injure any corporate agendas, and the public either does not care, or does not notice. The news goes with sensationalism and not real news. The group of people that ignores the sensational, and looks for the real truths is apparently not statistically significant.

Does one hate Cousteau for dynamiting his way into the Blue Hole and other early disasters? Or does one look at what Cousteau LEARNED over his years in the water and the conservation and education work he did over the decades? Benchley also LEARNED from the mistake of Jaws.

Totally agree with you. I read the Silent World as a child, and back then, Cousteu was the best gateway to the underwater world. The 60's and 70's had the educational institutions TEACHING that the ocean was an inexhaustible source of Food for the planet....the early diving pioneers had many faulty premises they were going on, that were not their fault.

As far as WHO is actually doing the most to help sharks today....or what efforts are significant, I would suggest this is the person or persons that have touched the hearts of the most people, regarding the importance of sharks, and also managed to re-educate the largest number on what sharks are doing in the water where people are found--and about the safety issue and maneater issues, etc.


This is a fairly recent movement, to gain a sizable majority of the public to support shark conservation. Will the top stars of this be the shark feeders like Stuart Cove, or the free shark swimming operations like Jim Abernethy Dive Adventures ( who have actually put out award winning movies iTunes - Movies - This Is Your Ocean: Sharks ) , or, will it be charitable trusts like the Pew Organization ( The Pew Charitable Trusts - Non Profit Organization Serving the Public) or other charities? I do NOT believe it will be the Discovery Channel, as they are doing more JAWS level SENASATION series on sharks than they are doing anything of true value.

 

[tphelps]

I agree with "Danvolker" on this. In my childhood, I refused to go surfing with my dad because I was afraid of getting eaten by a shark, because of Jaws. Yes he regrets what happened to them, so did the guys at the Nuremberg trials. Great film and great footage though.

 

[drbill]

Personally I think those who fault Benchley on this need to look at another side... the rather poor effort by the media (and by us as contributors) in getting the message out that sharks are NOT savage killers. Fortunately that is changing these days with all the shark conservation efforts world-wide. However, in the past it was a weak effort... and the lamestream media certainly didn't help promote the facts. I've only watched Shark Week one day (last year)... I had heard it was improving its message, but I was disappointed to see more of the same old crap on it.

I have had a 14 ft great white swim past me (uncaged) and do nothing more than glance at me as it headed towards the sea lion meat market at the East End of our island. I have filmed great whites (from a cage) with Dr. Guy Harvey at Guadalupe. I am about to em,bark on a 10-day trip to the Bahamas to film sharks there. Yes, they can pose problems... but generally they do not.

 

[drrich2]

I'm in my 40's, and have an on & off interest in sharks since I was a kid. A lot has been learned about sharks that wasn't known back then.

When I was a kid, there was a tendency to view sharks as stupid generalist carnivores with a powerful prey drive who'd probably eat about anything they could catch & overpower. The idea that large adult great whites would usually leave swimmers and divers unmolested because we're not seals or sea lions wouldn't have occurred to most. Remember the stories about how a large shark's stomach would be cut open & people would find miscellaneous junk such as license plates? Well, a 15 foot massive predator that's so indiscriminate it'll eat garbage is swimming along hungry and spots me swimming helplessly offshore...

Let's not forget those 'Seal Island' videos of large GWS's breaching with seals in their mouths.

I've never dove coastal California, but if I ever do, I WILL be thinking about the 'landlord,' as I hear they're called there.

Richard.

 

[Arubandi07]

I'm in my 40's, and have an on & off interest in sharks since I was a kid. A lot has been learned about sharks that wasn't known back then.

When I was a kid, there was a tendency to view sharks as stupid generalist carnivores with a powerful prey drive who'd probably eat about anything they could catch & overpower. The idea that large adult great whites would usually leave swimmers and divers unmolested because we're not seals or sea lions wouldn't have occurred to most. Remember the stories about how a large shark's stomach would be cut open & people would find miscellaneous junk such as license plates? Well, a 15 foot massive predator that's so indiscriminate it'll eat garbage is swimming along hungry and spots me swimming helplessly offshore...

Let's not forget those 'Seal Island' videos of large GWS's breaching with seals in their mouths.

I've never dove coastal California, but if I ever do, I WILL be thinking about the 'landlord,' as I hear they're called there.

Richard.

The documentary "Blue water, white death"(1971) is a pretty good illustration of that fact. As little as we know now, still a lot more than back then ... I was 13 when"Jaws" came out, definitely scary, but luckily I didn't know anything about GW populations in the Mediterranean, where we used to spend our annual vacations, doing lots of snorkel-diving. Back then, after seeing that movie, the mere thought of even a remote chance to run into a GW would have kept me out of the water ...

That said, in a strange way 'Jaws' turned out to actually be a 'good thing' for me, because ultimately it sparked my interest in learning more about Sharks, and over the last 30 years, science has come a long way in terms of developing a better, more comprehensive understanding of these animals, particularly in re to Shark behavior. But as much as I appreciate the diving community benefiting from that additional knowledge, sad that the Sharks are still getting the short end of the stick, for the most part ... That needs to change ...