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Director Steven Spielberg has regrets about the influence of his iconic film jaws<\/em> on the shark population. (Photo: Axelle\/Bauer-Griffin\/FilmMagic)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\njaws<\/em> put Steven Spielberg on the map. But the director has regrets about the film’s environmental impact.<\/p>\nIn a new interview with the BBC Radio 4 program Desert Island Discs<\/em>, Spielberg, 76, opened up about how he feels guilt about the dwindling shark population following the astronomical popularity of his 1975 blockbuster, in which a peaceful New England beach town attempts to save itself from a great white shark that’s killing off beachgoers. Spielberg was just 27 at the time of the film’s production.<\/p>\n\u201cI truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that,\u201d the filmmaker shared. \u201cThat’s one of the things I still fear. Not to get eaten by a shark, but that sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sport fishermen that happened after 1975.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spielberg isn’t alone in his regrets. Peter Benchley, the author of the book jaws<\/em> was based on, spent much of the rest of his life campaigning for the protection of sharks, the BBC previously reported.<\/p>\n“Knowing what I know now, I could never write that book today,” Benchley shared. “Sharks don’t target human beings, and they certainly don’t hold grudges.”<\/p>\n
Despite Spielberg’s assertions, experts are mixed on the influence of the film on the existence of sharks. While it’s a statistical fact that the shark population is shrinking (a 2021 global study published in nature<\/em> found the world’s population of oceanic sharks and rays has fallen by 71%) some experts say that’s not due to the book or film. Paul Cox, chief executive of the Shark Trust, said placing the blame on jaws<\/em> is \u201cgiving the movie far too much credit.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cThe cases of shark population decline are very clearly fisheries overfishing,\u201d he explained, the Guardian<\/em> report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Director Steven Spielberg has regrets about the influence of his iconic film jaws on the shark population. (Photo: Axelle\/Bauer-Griffin\/FilmMagic) jaws put Steven Spielberg on the map. But the director has regrets about the film’s environmental impact. In a new interview with the BBC Radio 4 program Desert Island Discs, Spielberg, 76, opened up about how …<\/p>\n
Steven Spielberg says he ‘truly’ regrets the impact of ‘Jaws’ on the shark population<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nSteven Spielberg says he 'truly' regrets the impact of 'Jaws' on the shark population - harchi90<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n