By David Sims, Professor of Marine Ecology, University of Southampton

Steven Spielberg’s Jaws opened across North America on June 20 1975, and immediately tapped into the primal human fear of being hunted by a huge, savvy predator.

Set on a fictional island off the coast of New England, the film depicts an epic battle between three men on a boat and an enormous great white shark. Jaws was hugely popular, grossing a record US$100 million in its first 59 days.

Young and already mad about sharks, I left the film wanting to know more about their behaviour and ecology. But films affect people in different ways, and the movie has since spawned what social scientists call “the Jaws effect”.

This contended that sharks became widely demonised as a result of the film’s depiction of them as relentless killers obsessed with attacking humans. Director Spielberg’s inspired use of fleeting glimpses of the shark’s fin knifing through the water, accompanied by the film’s sinister and unforgettable music, heightened those feelings. That’s how Jaws affected us. But 50 years on, how have shark populations fared?

Related articles

• Great white shark makes rare Nusa Penida appearance
• Fascinating facts about the great white shark
• Scientists find there are three distinct types of great white shark
• Shark and ray populations halved by overfishing in last 50 years
• Great white shark population ‘booming’ – scientists

Both Spielberg and Peter Benchley, Jaws author and screenplay contributor, regretted the film’s influence on public perception of sharks. Indeed, Benchley became an advocate for shark conservation who enjoyed working with scientists (I was invited onto his radio show to discuss my research satellite-tracking basking sharks).

In the years following the film’s release, increasing numbers of sharks – including the movie’s great white – were reportedly killed in shark fishing tournaments that had risen in popularity.

Sharks grow slowly, take a long time to reach sexual maturity and have relatively few offspring. This makes many species vulnerable to overfishing. Fishing at this level removes too many sharks from the population too quickly, such that the remaining sharks cannot replace them fast enough, and the population declines. A recorded decline can be relatively large if the starting population size is already small, like that of top predators such as the great white shark.

Several data sources, including rod-and-reel and longline fishing, indicate a significant decline in the abundance of white sharks in the 1970s and 1980s along the US east coast where the film is set. The Jaws effect in action?

Actually, rapid declines were not limited to US waters. White shark catches in bather protection nets off the southeast coast of Australia recorded a similarly large decrease in the mid-1970s. And this particular source suggests white shark populations had begun declining from the mid-1950s, 20 years before Jaws.

Additional factors, such as commercial overfishing, were obviously at play. The film’s influence probably exacerbated white shark declines that were already happening.

Globally, the white shark has been assessed as vulnerable by conservationists, with a decreasing population trend. Fortunately, there are signs of recovery.

National protection measures for white sharks were implemented in the 1990s where these animals were formerly abundant, like the US, South Africa and Australia, and worldwide protections came a few years later.

Since the 1990s there have been apparent increases in abundance off the US east coast (when populations are so small and data so sparse, a short-term increase may not be a lasting trend). Welcome signs that measures, such as prohibiting catches in 1997, are having a positive effect following decades of over-exploitation. But this species is still vulnerable to incidental capture, so protection measures must be maintained and enforced to sustain any recoveries.

The Jaws effect was not limited to great white sharks. Many other large sharks were captured and killed in shark fishing tournaments that became more common following the film. Unfortunately, the killing continues in remaining US tournaments today.

But over the past few decades the overwhelming cause of large shark declines globally, particularly in the open ocean far from shore, has been the expansion of industrial-scale commercial fisheries targeting sharks for their fins and meat.

It was estimated in 2024 that fishing vessels are killing around 100 million sharks a year – a number that rose during the last decade. Nearly a third of shark species are now threatened with extinction.

It was estimated in 2021 that the global abundance of shark and ray species which prowl the open ocean (such as the oceanic whitetip or shortfin mako) has declined by an average of 71% since 1970 due to rocketing fishing pressure on the high seas (areas beyond national jurisdictions).

My own research analysing shark satellite tracks in collaboration with over 150 shark scientists showed that 24% of the space used by these sharks each month on average falls under the footprint of surface longline fisheries. These include vessels that can deploy lines 100km-long carrying 1,000 baited hooks for up to 24 hours. We found the overlap was even greater, about 75%, for commercially valuable species such as the blue shark.

More sharks die in these overlap hotspots than in adjacent areas, according to more recent research.

Demystifying Jaws

Are there any signs of recovery for these species under existing management measures? For many oceanic sharks, the answer is still no.

At present, measures in place (if any) on the high seas are insufficient to safeguard populations. There is very little or no protection of shark activity hotspots. And some of the measures, such as shark finning bans, have been shown to be ineffective.

My colleagues and I revealed that catches of internationally protected species are sometimes 90 times greater than official reports.

So there is still a very long way to go to rebuild global shark populations.

Jaws helped promote a negative image of sharks that has no basis in reality. Rather, shark behaviour appears as complex in some cases as that of birds and mammals.

Tracking sharks revealed they can migrate thousands of kilometres to feed in specific remote habitats, before returning to the very same place they left months before. Some prefer to hang out with familiar individuals, and sharks even form persistent social networks. Giant basking sharks take part in speed-dating-like behaviour when they form courtship swimming circles at the end of summer.

The serial killer image has probably made it harder to convince people to sympathise with the plight of sharks. Jaws came at a time when very little was known about sharks, so fiction filled the void.

But there are now more shark scientists thanks to Jaws. Demystifying these creatures has been the first step to their potential recovery.

David Sims is Professor of Marine Ecology at the University of Southampton. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

The post Jaws helped spur a fishing frenzy – so how have the world’s sharks fared since the 1975 release? appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

The Shark Trust’s citizen science initiative, The Great Shark Snapshot, is returning for its fourth year, giving members of the public a chance to add to the growing shark database of shark and ray sighting information.

Divers and snorkellers are invited to submit reports of any sharks and rays they spot, wherever in the world they happen to be.

This year the Great Shark Snapshot takes place in Shark Month between 19-27 July. The Shark Trust will also be holding a series of events celebrating all things shark and ray, including Shark Week and the 50th anniversary of Jaws.

Divers, clubs, centres, charter boats and liveaboards are all encouraged to show their support by organising dives and events throughout the week. In addition to gathering vital data, the event will provide a chance to celebrate the incredible shark and ray species that live in the world’s oceans.

Information about the species and numbers of sharks and rays the participants find over the week will be added to the Shark Trust’s Shark Log. This global shark census will, over time, allow shark scientists to build a picture of species distribution and any changes that occur.

‘It is great to see this popular citizen science event back for its 4th year,’ said Caroline Robertson-Brown, Marketing Manager at the Shark Trust.

‘We are asking divers to Make Every Dive Count this year. To identify, count and record every shark, ray and eggcase they see during the week-long event; to organise dives especially to take part.

‘Whether you are diving your local dive site, or on the trip of a lifetime, we want divers to join in on the Great Shark Snapshot in July.’

Joining in is easy – just go diving or snorkellying between 19th and 27th July and record every shark, ray, skate or eggcase that you and your dive group sees.

If possible, take photos and some video footage too, then make sure that you record your sightings on the Shark Trust Shark Log recordings website or by using the Shark Trust app.

The Shark Trust has created a digital guide that puts all the information shark and ray spotters need in one handy online guide – which can be downloaded from the Shark Trust’s website here.

For more information head to: www.sharktrust.org/snapshot, or download the app from the links below.

Related posts

• New Shark Trust citizen science app
• Shark Trust Great Shark Snapshot 2024 results
• Basking sharks: 10 things everybody should know
• Fascinating facts about the great white shark

The post Dive into the Great Shark Snapshot 2025 appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

A new paper published in Frontiers in Fish Science has captured striking footage of an unlikely dinner pairing, as oceanic whitetip and tiger sharks were spotted feeding together on an animal carcass off the island of Hawai’i.

The footage is thought to be the first documented evidence of the two species feeding together, as they by and large occupy different marine habitats.

Although oceanic whitetip sharks (Carcharhinus longimanus) are often spotted close to reefs, they are – as the name suggests – a pelagic, deep-water shark, and spend most of their lives in the open ocean.

In an almost direct reversal of behaviours, the larger tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) are near-shore coastal roamers, although they are also known to migrate long distances through the oceans.

During the spring and summer months, a seasonal aggregation of oceanic whitetips near Hawai’i brings them into close proximity with the island’s resident tiger sharks, however, the two species are rarely seen together.

‘To our knowledge, this is the first study to document a feeding aggregation of tiger sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks scavenging concurrently, and peacefully, on a carcass,’ said the study’s lead author, Dr Molly Scott, a marine researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

‘It is incredibly rare for these two species to overlap in space and time.’

The encounter was filmed by tourists in April 2024, as the sharks were spotted feeding on a carcass in an advanced state of decay about 10km off the western coast of Hawai’i.

At least nine oceanic whitetips and five tiger sharks were seen during a period of 8.5 hours, but there was no aggressive behaviour between the species.

Tiger sharks, which average between 3.5m – 4.5m as adults, are substantially larger than oceanic whitetips, which are more likely to be encountered as adults between 2-3m in length.

As a result of the size difference, the study’s authors note that the tiger sharks were the dominant party at the feast, and with the exception of one smaller female, were spotted feeding directly from the carcass most frequently.

Two larger oceanic whitetips were also seen taking chunks out of the remains, but the smaller sharks kept their distance and fed on scraps dropped by the bigger fish.

Although there was clearly a pecking order over the course of the feeding, there did not appear to be any attempt by the larger sharks to drive others away from the carcass, almost as if the sharks implicitly understood who got first servings.

‘Even though up to 12 individual sharks were feeding intermittently from a very small, highly degraded carcass, we did not observe any agonistic inter- or intra-species aggression,’ said Scott

‘This was surprising to me; I would assume some agonistic behaviours would exist when there are that many sharks attempting to feed around such a small carcass. But it seems all individuals knew their place in the social hierarchy.’

Although the encounter lasted less than a single day, the study’s authors say that it provides an insight into the relationship and social interactions between species of shark that do not normally cross paths.

Scott also noted that even though the sharks were involved in feeding behaviour, they took little notice of the humans in the water filming them.

‘There were between two and three humans in the water at all times, filming more than 12 sharks feeding. None of the photographers reported any scary, aggressive, or harmful interactions with the sharks,’ said Scott.

‘I hope this provides a new perspective that sharks are not the human-eating predators they are made out to be.’

The complete paper, ‘Novel observations of an oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus) and tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) scavenging event’ by Molly Scott et al is published under an open access licence in Frontiers in Fish Science.

Related articles

• The oceanic whitetips of Cat Island
• Brothers Islands closed for diving after oceanic whitetip bite
• Tiger sharks’ social bonds ‘buffer’ impact of feeding dives
• Freediver bitten by oceanic whitetip shark
• Continued predation of great white sharks by orcas

The post Unlikely oceanic white tip and tiger shark dinner pairing appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

By Mark 'Crowley' Russell

US President Donald Trump has pardoned two divers from Florida who were convicted of theft in 2022 after freeing 19 sharks from fishing lines off the coast of Jupiter, Florida in 2020.

John Moore Jr, who was the captain of a shark-diving boat, and Tanner Mansell, one of his crew, freed the sharks and a goliath grouper in August 2020, believing they were part of an illegal longline fishing operation.

After freeing the fish, the two men reported their discovery to Florida State wildlife officials and brought the longline – which measured several miles in length – back to shore as evidence of their discovery.

According to social media posts made by passengers on the dive boat at the time, the crew had freed one great hammerhead, six tiger sharks, three lemon sharks, two nurse sharks, one Caribbean reef shark and one silky shark.

Unfortunately for the two men, the line belonged to a fisherman who was licensed by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to legally catch the sharks for scientific research.

As a result, and despite having freely reported their actions to the authorities, they were charged with theft by the US attorney’s office and found guilty by a jury that reports say took longer to deliberate than the time spent in court.

Prosecutors said the two men and their team were fully aware that the longline was legal and chose to sabotage it because it was in the interests of their dive business to do so.

They were ordered to pay $3,343.72 to the longline’s owner, and although the men were not sent to jail, the record of the felony convictions prevents them from voting in Florida and travelling outside of the United States.

‘We never stopped fighting, and justice has finally prevailed,’ said Moore’s attorney, Marc Seitles, in a statement for the media.

‘We are thrilled the White House considered our arguments and determined this was an unjust prosecution. We could not be happier for John and Tanner.’

President Trump signed the pardon on 28 May, clearing the two men of their convictions.

‘This case never should have been filed,’ said Mansell’s attorney, Ian Goldstein. ‘These gentlemen made an honest mistake and were trying to save sharks from what they believed to be an illegal longline fishing setup.

‘I can’t think of two individuals more deserving of a Presidential Pardon.’

Related articles

• MV Conception tragedy captain’s appeal rejected
• Maldives reconsiders lifting longline fishing ban
• Greenpeace longline report highlights shark bycatch and severe fishery depletion
• What’s happened to False Bay’s great white sharks?
• Scuba diving the wrecks of the Florida Keys

The post Donald Trump pardons divers convicted of theft for freeing sharks appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

A huge haul of 402 shark fins weighing in at 102 kilograms has been seized by Thai customs officials at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

The seizure was conducted during a joint operation between Thailand’s Customs Department and Chinese anti-smuggling authorities on Saturday, 3 May.

Thai customs officials were reportedly tipped off in advance by the Anti-Smuggling Bureau of China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC), which had notified them that goods violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) were scheduled to pass through the airport.

The Thai Fisheries Department coordinated an inspection with Thai Airways International and found the fins – worth over 2 million Thai baht (£46,000/$62,000) – contained in packages labelled as ‘dried fish’, which had originating in Trinidad and Tobago and were en route to China.

Related articles

• Panama police seize six tonnes of shark fins
• UK shark fins ban bill moves forward for Royal Assent
• Shark Guardian investigation finds endangered shark fins for sale in Taiwan
• Shark and ray populations halved by overfishing in last 50 years

The discovery was announced by Thai Customs spokesperson Phantong Loykulnanta, who said it was part of an ongoing effort to enforce strict bans on the passage of illegal goods through Thailand, particularly those violating CITES regulations.

‘This seizure sends a clear message that Thailand will not be a transit point for illegal wildlife trade,’ said Phantong. The case has been handed over to the police, who have launched an investigation to identify those responsible for the smuggling operation.

Shark fins are highly prized across Asian markets, particularly in China, where they are used to make shark fin soup, a luxury menu item which is said to have health-boosting properties, including increased virility in men.

There are no scientifically proven benefits that eating shark fins has any beneficial effects, and since the flesh of sharks is known to contain high levels of mercury, consuming shark fin soup may have the exact opposite of its intended effect.

The post Shark fins seized at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport appeared first on DIVE Magazine.