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February 13, 2006

An Unlikely Shark Sympathizer Passes Away

I believe implicitly that every young man in the world is fascinated with either sharks or dinosaurs.
                 - Peter Benchley

When someone says "water", one of the first words that pops into my head is "shark". But then, I was born after 1974. When Peter Benchley wrote the novel 'Jaws', he never expected it would be such a hit. The thriller, which sold more than 11.5 million copies (according to Publisher's Weekly) and spawned the ultimate horror blockbuster franchise, made terrifying by Steven Spielberg's thrilling effects and direction. In the space of a year, Benchley made an entire planet rethink swimming in the ocean.

I know now that the mythic monster I created was largely a fiction.
                 - Peter Benchley

But what a lot of people don't know is that although Benchley loved talking about the gruesome details, the blood, guts and gore associated with these apex predators, the sharks, he also came to regret the negative wrap his shark stories created. With his monstrous vengeful fish epic, he singlehandedly made the world less sympathetic to the real sharks of the wild. And make no mistake, sharks are an integral part of our ocean ecosystems.

But Benchley realized this, and for much of his life since he has worked to bring new understanding and public focus to these ultimate predators - through his magazine articles and radio programs, as well as several books on real world sharks - both for adults and kids. He even joked that one day, the great whites might decide to take revenge for his novel writing, which cause them so much grief, and he certainly didn't want to be around for that.

"But Peter kept telling people the book was fiction, it was a novel, and that he no more took responsibility for the fear of sharks than Mario Puzo took responsibility for the Mafia."

...

He served on the national council of Environmental Defense, hosted numerous television wildlife programs, gave speeches around the world and wrote articles for National Geographic and other publications.

"He cared very much about sharks. He spent most of his life trying to explain to people that if you are in the ocean, you're in the shark's territory, so it behooves you to take precautions," Wendy Benchley said.

More At: MSN: 'Jaws' Author Peter Benchley Dies at 65

Over the course of his lifetime, Peter Benchley came to respect the sharks, even going so far as to state that if he'd known then what he had come to know now, the novel 'Jaws' would have been quite different. Many of the sinister intentions he placed upon his finned antagonist were far off the mark, and scientists now have benign explanations for them. Peter Benchley helped educate the public about how amazing sharks really are, and with his passing, sharks and ocean conservationalists alike have lost a beloved benefactor.

If there's an underlying them in the books I've written about marine creatures, it's that man has a responsibility to co-exist with his environment, not to try to dominate it.
                -Peter Benchley

You can check out more of my great white shark photography and video, not to mention the shark podcast, here:

• PERLGURL.ORG Podcast Episode #1: We're Going To Need A Bigger Boat - Great White Sharks
  
• Finally! Great Whites Get Protection
  
• Great White Sharks - More Footage
  
• Shark Cage Diving - Sketchy?
  
• Great White Sharks One of Many Victims In Multi-Billion Dollar Wildlife Black Market
  
• Fast Fishes: Great White Shark Speed Record
  
• Isolated Ecosystems: The Farallons Are California’s Galapagos
  

Posted by sorsha at February 13, 2006 12:06 PM