Last summer, a great white shark washed up on the shore of Nantucket, Massachusetts. When a family on vacation came across the beached behemoth as it flailed in the shallow waves, they made a surprising choice. Members of the group cautiously approached the shark and pushed it back into the ocean. Video of the event quickly went viral — a feel-good story with a hint of danger.
But 50 years ago, during the same summer that “Jaws” first swam into theaters, a similar encounter might have gone very differently.
On June 20, 1975, Steven Spielberg unleashed “Jaws” on the world, inventing the modern blockbuster and launching a global fascination with sharks. It was the first film to gross more than $100 million at the U.S. box office, according to the American Film Institute. Based on the best-selling book by Peter Benchley, “Jaws” sparked a surge of interest in studying the ancient apex predator — and an obsession with hunting sharks as trophies.
“When ‘Jaws’ came out, there was an uptick in shark tournaments,” said Wendy Benchley, a longtime ocean conservationist who is married to the “Jaws” author and appears in the upcoming National Geographic documentary “Jaws @ 50.” “This fictional book and movie somehow gave people the license to kill sharks.”
