It’s the 1950s, and the saying “a good shark is a dead shark” is beginning to circulate in the US. The bad reputation of the dignified fish was certainly influenced by a story from 1916, when a shark killed four people on the Jersey Shore. And although at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s the statistics of shark murders are incomparable with those published several years later, the aversion to mysterious creatures is already present in the mood of the society. It was enough to fuel it to cause worldwide panic.
“A good shark is a dead shark”
Valerie May Taylor did not share her fear of creatures. At the age of 12, the creator fell ill with polio and was isolated from family and friends, as a result of which she dropped out of school. At the age of 15, she started working for the animation studio NZ Film Unit. In 1956, she dived into the ocean for the first time, which she devoted her entire life to. To provide for the family and at the same time have the opportunity to go underwater regularly, Taylor took up fishing. She actively participated in the championships, but soon realized that killing underwater creatures is cruel and bad for the environment.
A woman fascinated by the underwater world and did not want to leave it. She decided to use her equipment and skills to document the lives of the people there – not to take them thoughtlessly. She paid special attention to her favorites – sharks. “It’s an animal like any other” – she said and compared the creatures to dogs. “Everyone is different, a dog can kill too” – she proclaimed.
In 1971, Taylor took part in the documentary “Blue Water, White Death”, which was supposed to show the nature of sharks. For the first time, the creators managed to film great white sharks without the use of metal cages. Taylor and her husband were swimming freely in the company of fish, which at the same time were eating whale carcasses. The success of the film was guaranteed. Valerie Taylor gained worldwide popularity and used it to explain to fans that sharks, although they look menacing, are not as aggressive as we think. “When we do our job, they do their job too,” she explained. Unfortunately, the star’s statements had nothing to do with the sensational title and overtones of the production.
“Jaws” changed not only cinema, but also the lives of sharks around the world
The documentary “Blue Water, White Death” inspired Peter Benchley to write the best-selling novel “Jaws”, published in 1974. The story of a great white shark that preys on the inhabitants of a port town on Long Island appealed to Steven Spielberg. The director made a breakthrough decision in his career and decided to make an adaptation of the book. For this task he hired, among others, Valerie, whose experience with underwater photography was invaluable in the production of the image.
Everyone expected Spielberg’s “Jaws” to be a classic B-class movie. It soon turned out that the creator was preparing a groundbreaking blockbuster that would change not only the approach to creating sensational cinema, but also the lives of sharks around the world. As Taylor says in the documentary “Dances with Sharks”, Spielberg wanted 7-meter sharks on the set. The fish Val was swimming with were about half that size. The director did not give up. He decided to “reduce the rest”. Clever editing, camera placement, and the hiring of a short-staged actor allowed the shark in Jaws to grow to monstrous proportions.
After the premiere of Jaws in 1975, people all over the world became terrified of sharks. They also avoided beaches and swimming in the oceans. Since then, fish have been commonly called “killing machines”, “monsters”, “predators”, “aggressors”, “murderers” and “man-eaters”. According to CBR’s Sean Elard, “Great white sharks have become a Little Red Riding Hood wolf-like figure – the epitome of the fear of ‘brutal nature’ that the common man sometimes encounters.”
“Jaws” earned a fortune and became one of the first blockbusters in the history of cinema. Disturbing music by John Williams, accurate casting, spectacular, as for the cinema of those years, special effects, suggestive editing and dynamic shots combined to create a convincing picture that delighted viewers around the world. He was captivated, but also scared to death. After the premiere of the film, the media began to be flooded with more sensational reports about “sea monsters”. The bad PR of sharks continues to this day.
“I killed one shark in my life, today I want to save them all”
The range of popularity of Spielberg’s work has increased interest in shark hunting around the world. Predator populations began to decline drastically. People blinded by the fear of sharks did not understand that fish are far more likely to be victims themselves. An example is the popularity of shark fin soup in China. The locals once killed about 100 million sharks a year to prepare and sell the local delicacy. The rest of the creatures’ flesh was simply thrown away. “Sharks are a key part of the marine environment and must be protected. Without them, the ecosystem cannot function properly. The loss of sharks will deprive coastal countries of their livelihoods, food and tourism,” reads the official WWF position on fish.
The author of the book “Jaws” admitted after the premiere of the film adaptation that if he had known about the fate of his novel for sharks, he would never have written it. Also Valerie Taylor could not accept the fact that she had a hand in catastrophic events for the population of predators. “Jaws took us back in time,” she admitted, but that wasn’t enough.
Taylor became an activist. She is committed to protecting her favorite marine predators. She started writing letters to politicians. She mentioned that she killed a shark once in her life, but today she wants to protect them all. Her appeals worked. Soon, the sand tarwish became the first protected shark. Valerie and her husband traveled the world and explained that out of 400 shark species, only six pose a potential threat to humans.
Statistics of human mortality when encountering sample species of creatures Gazeta.pl / Source: Curiosity Daily podcast
The couple even recorded a video of themselves using themselves as shark bait. She tried to show that predators do not hunt people. This is confirmed by the WWF organization, which points out that humans are not desirable food for sharks. Most species feed on fish or invertebrates such as squid or clams. In addition, the Taylors managed to disprove the scientific theory that sharks crush with their teeth. To this end, Valerie put on a special metal armor and let the predator bite her, proving that the assumptions were not true.
After years of efforts by Valerie and her husband, the location where “Jaws” was filmed has become a shark conservation area. After Spielberg’s film, more images were created that frightened with the image of the world-famous fish. In 1978, the second part of “Jaws” was shot, in the 1990s “Hell Depths” by Renny Harlin with Samuel L. Jackson was made. Fans of low-budget movies probably also remember the “Sharknado” series, which captivated viewers with its irrational plot. The heroes of the film struggle with a tornado full of sharks. In 2013, the horror film “Ghost Shark” was created about the spirit of a predator, and three years earlier, viewers could see a hybrid of a shark and an octopus on the screen in the production of “Sharktopus”. This year’s premiere of the second part of the movie “The Meg”, in which Jason Statham fights a shark, is also very popular.
Sharks are one of the oldest species on Earth. It is estimated that fish inhabited the oceans 180 million years before the first dinosaurs. According to the website oceany.org, currently sharks are an endangered species, and yet only three varieties of these fish are protected. The population of all sharks has decreased by 90 percent in the last 30 years, so protecting and trying to change the image of undersea predators is necessary to save the marine ecosystem. The argument about the fear of predator attacks on humans is not hit. WWF reports that in 2018, only five people in the world died as a result of an encounter with a shark. By comparison, 139 sharks are killed worldwide every minute, which means that millions of sharks are killed each year by humans. As Bill Gates once wrote on Twitter, mosquitoes in one day more people than sharks in 100 years.
Deer, cows, hippos and horses are also more dangerous to humans. And although sharks live in all the oceans of the world, they attack people extremely rarely. We’re more likely to be struck by lightning than to be eaten by the main character in Jaws.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
