DATELINE :- 4th September 2000
BENCHLEY'S CONVERSION
Jaws author backs WildAid campaign to save sharks
"I could never have written Jaws today. That is not to say that I am apologising. I am not offering redress. I don't atone. It is just that 25 years on we know a lot more about sharks."
So said Peter Benchley, author of the book that became the shark-as-enemy film, at the launch of a campaign by WildAid to educate the governments of the world that sharks are worth more alive than dead, writes John Bantin. The project seeks to ban shark-finning worldwide.
But it was the fishing industry, not Jaws, that had kick-started the destruction of sharks on a global basis, said Benchley. "With the exception of a tiny macho minority of people in Australia and Florida, no-one saw the movie and said these animals deserve to die," he said. "The shark-finner is motivated by money, not a movie. Sharks are being mutilated because of a market demand."
Fins are cut from still-living animals before they are returned to die in the sea. Shark-finning has increased dramatically along with the demand for sharkfin soup, in parallel with increasing prosperity in Asian countries. Shark-finning boats can catch hundreds of sharks and other animals on one long line.
One hundred million sharks are killed each year in this way and there are concerns for the sustainability of such a fishery. Sharks take 20 years to mature and produce only a few offspring. The population in US waters is thought to have declined by 90 percent in the past 10 years.
WildAid campaigns internationally, with no conventional membership but funded by a grant from the Barbara Delano Foundation. It claims it can direct all donations to the field in countries needing assistance to protect endangered species, including efforts to support the Park Service in preventing illegal fishing in the Galapagos.
Industrialised fishing wastes 98 percent of sharkmeat, because hold space on ships is reserved for more valuable catches such as tuna. There are no quotas or controls, and Benchley said that in Asia it is widely believed that a shark's fins grow back.
"Man has no right to extinguish any species," he said. "A shark is nature at its most perfect. It governs the rest of the food chain. Sharks survived whatever it was that wiped out the dinosaurs. They were around 400 million years ago. My fear has turned to respect."
With Jaws now re-released on DVD, how did he see its likely effect today?
"Jaws was a classic story. I read all I could about great white sharks before I wrote the book, but there was very little known at the time. Jaws is a safe fear. There is no risk of a shark climbing your stairs in the night and eating you in your bed. Now, with the DVD version, the movie will be seen by a whole new generation.
"We don't just fear our predators. We are transfixed by them. Jaws taps into that fear. That's what has made it so successful."
All of which made it even more important to explain what sharks are all about in real life. "I had not dived with a great white shark before I wrote Jaws, but later 19 million people saw me doing so on American television. It's important now that we think more about fisheries and conservation."
After his presentation, Benchley reflected on a question from a member of the international press, who had asked: "Just how scary are sharks?"
"It just shows how far we have to go," he said. "Will we be the generation that kills off 400 million years of evolution?"
As a welcome aside, referring to Diver magazine he added: "I read Diver. It is such an important magazine; much more so than any in the USA."