47 years after the debut of his film “Jaws,” director Steven Spielberg has apologized for the effect that the movie had on the shark population.
The Hollywood movie from 1975 tells the story of a New England seaside town battling a great white shark that is preying on vacationers and beachgoers. In a recent interview, the 76-year-old director said on BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs” that he thought the movie’s success was tied to the reduction of sharks.
“I sincerely regret that the shark population was decimated as a result of the book and the movie, and I still do. I regret that sincerely “, Spielberg, who was 27 at the time the movie was filmed, remarked.
“One of the things I continue to fear is that. In order for me to avoid getting eaten by a shark, but rather because of the feeding frenzy of crazed sport fishermen that took place after 1975, ” Spielberg kept going.
Shark scientist Paul Cox told that blaming “Jaws” for the drop in shark numbers over the last few decades would be “giving the film too much credit,” but that the connection between the film’s popularity and it.
Cox continued, “The incidents of shark population loss are quite clearly overfishing in fisheries.”
Spielberg concurs with the author of the book on which the film is based that the popularity of the franchise had a catastrophic impact on the shark population.
In 2015, Peter Benchley stated, “Knowing what I know now, I could never write that book today.” Sharks don’t hunt humans, and they definitely don’t harbor resentments.”
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