DATELINE :- 14th June 2000
DAVID JASON PLAYS SCARY
Delboy bites off more than Jaws can chew
When actor and avid sport diver David Jason opened a new and impressive exhibition called Journey Around the World of Sharks (JAWS) at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth on 12 April, his role was to speak in support of shark conservation.
But Jason, a patron of the Shark Trust and introduced as "one of the few people who has actually swum with sharks", discarded pre-discussed themes, thinking that a horror story would amuse. As a result, many of the invited audience will have left with the stereotyped view of sharks as indiscriminate man-eaters reinforced, writes John Bantin (another Trust patron who was present at the meeting).
Speaking to an audience of around 170 drawn from local businesses, government agencies and marine biologists, together with general supporters, Jason adopted what appeared to be Only Fools and Horses' Derek Trotter persona as he described how dive-centre owner Stuart Cove took him into the water to feed sharks in the Bahamas.
"These sharks are really ugly and they've got big teeth," explained Jason. "Within moments we were surrounded by dozens of them... Stuart Cove had told me to keep my hands down by my side... Only my laundry knows how frightened I was.
"At the end of the feed Stuart gave me the diver's OK signal - and a shark bit off three fingers. He won't be doing that again!"
It was an entertaining performance but the joke appeared misjudged, most of the audience appearing to take his words at face value.
Asked to comment, Cove told Diver: "David was great fun to have diving with us, but I can assure you that my hands and fingers are completely intact! David is right that a shark bit my hand while I was feeding, but I had chain mail gloves on and she let go immediately."
Sharks can occasionally misjudge the position of bait on a feeding pole, explained Cove, and shark-feeders, who always wear the mail gloves, can expect the odd "nick or two". Sharks are uninterested in eating humans, he said, and neither he nor Jason had been in any danger.
Asked for his reaction to Jason's contribution, Clive James, Director of the Shark Trust, said: "The particular words David used were not very helpful, but his heart is in the right place. His overall message in support of conservation was clear.
"David freely admitted to being scared before his first shark feed, and joked that this fear was not helped when a shark accidentally bit his colleague's glove. But he then drew a more serious conclusion - that sharks are magnificent, highly evolved apex predators that deserve our respect and protection."
On shark feeds and conservation, Stuart Cove added: "We've introduced more than 60,000 divers to sharks, dispelling the myth of them as indiscriminate man-eaters. The divers go away with a new understanding."
The JAWS exhibition, which includes a full-size Animatronic model of a great white shark, goes on tour to other venues in the UK at the end of September.