This is a tribute to Peter Benchley, not the movie Jaws (1975)
The author of 'Jaws' dedicated the rest of his life to reversing the unexpected negative impact his book had on the image of sharks.
Not only were sharks supposedly killed to create props for the movie, but 'Jaws' ended up awakening a bloody sea of ignorance in people at the time, who, haunted by an irrational fear and lack of understanding about marine predators, felt motivated to take to their boats and kill thousands of great white sharks in the most feared ways.
Such as the promotion of great white shark hunting championships that targeted the biggest ones, which were mostly pregnant females who, after being displayed as a trophy, had their jaws ripped off and their bodies discarded in the garbage.
Fear spread widely to all shark species, creating a lack of sensitivity that made it convenient to exterminate entire shark populations around the world that for a long time remained invisible to people's perception.
And this has continued to resonate for a long time with the entertainment media perpetuating the portrayal of sharks as monsters, newspapers favoring sensationalism about shark incidents, governments promoting shark culls, the advance of the unregulated predatory fishing industry, scientists not being supported in their studies of marine predators, the destruction of their natural habitats and the pollution of the oceans.
For thousands of years, sharks have taken care of the health of our oceans, older than the dinosaurs or the first trees, they have gone through great mass extinctions, they have been worshipped and respected as gods and guardians by oceanic peoples and now we demonize them in our media and exterminate them by the millions every year, who is the real monster?
We are shark-eaters.
I hope you can also hear what Peter Benchley himself had to say about all this:
Peter, along with his wife Wendy, made it their lives mission to right the perceived wrong message of Jaws and focus on educating people on
I finally finished this artwork! Hope you like it. At some point I will adapt it for my little Redbubble store.🛍️
I reduced the quality to try to prevent them from stealing. I hope it's enough! 🙁
An excellent drawing & tribute to a great man! Here’s a short video included in the article where Benchley sums up his thoughts nicely (warning for footage of the shark finning process):
For those who might want a more in-depth video explanation of the Jaws book, film, & its repercussions, I’d personally recommend Trey the Explainer’s video essay on the topic:
Your addition to these videos is very welcome! Thank you so much for this, I didn't know about Trey's video! 🦈✨