Peter Benchley Goes on the Attack for Sharks
Jaws author Peter Benchley speaks up for a misunderstood beast in Shark Trouble. Science & Nature editor Laura Wood shares her email conversation with the author.
Barnes & Noble.com: As you can imagine, I have read an untold number of nonfiction science books, and I can say that your novel-writing skills certainly made the subject come alive. Was writing this nonfiction book a different kind of experience for you, or are the same principles at work?
Peter Benchley: It was both at once. When I was telling the stories about experiences I've had, things that have happened to me, encounters with sharks, I found myself constructing the tales as if they were part of a novel: emphasizing the suspense, directing the peaks and valleys so as to maintain reader interest, et cetera. At the same time, however, I had to restrain my fictional impulse, so as not to warp the truth. My training in journalism helped a lot. I recalled many of the basic lessons I learned at Newsweek and The Washington Post years ago and have kept fresh by writing for National Geographic magazine, among others: Write tightly, write clearly, write a lead that involves the reader, and stick to the facts.
B&N.com: As you point out, sharks fascinate people because they are one of a handful of large predators left on the planet. As terrifying as they might be, the sad fact today is that we are much more of a threat to them than they are to us. From your book it seems like you came around to a conservation point of view after the success of Jaws, when you were the "talent" for various underwater documentaries.
PB: When I was writing Jaws (30 years ago! ye gods!), my -- and the world's -- environmental sensibility had barely been born. Earth Day was only a year old. Most people still believed that the oceans were eternal and invincible, immune to anything man could possibly do to them. And very few people knew anything about sharks, especially great white sharks. There was so little literature on them, and so few people had any experience with them, that, for research, I relied heavily on the superb 1971 documentary film Blue Water, White Death and the book that accompanied it, Peter Matthiessen's Blue Meridian.
The success of Jaws led to invitations to do television shows, especially for ABC's legendary American Sportsman series, and those shows gave me the opportunity to learn enormous amounts about the oceans and their inhabitants. The more I came to know, the more sensitized I became to the problems in the seas. I was able to work at the side of great scientists and ocean conservationists like Dr. Sylvia Earle and Dr. Eugenie Clark (the celebrated "shark lady"). We became friends and, to this day, we work together on conservation projects. I quickly grew to regard sharks and the sea with great respect rather than fear, and that respect, in turn, let me to immerse myself in conservation issues. Today I'm on the National Board of Environmental Defense and am a spokesman for other marine-oriented organizations.
B&N.com: I liked the way you described the public's attitude toward the ocean. As you said, no one would wander into the Amazon with nothing but a bathing suit and suntan lotion, yet the ocean is really a wilderness. For the most part, are the people you talk with ready to change their attitudes?
PB: I've always been amazed at how little guidance the public is given about ocean safety. The Red Cross, of course, has always offered water-safety programs, but relatively few people (compared to the number who venture into the sea, that is) take advantage of them. This is due partly, I think, to our resistance to recognizing the sea as the great and untamed wilderness it is. The sea is right there, in our backyard, and it doesn't occur to us that there could be any peril in plunging into it. One of the most astonishing facts I came across while doing research for Shark Trouble is that more than 80 percent of all living things on earth live in the sea. And they all, naturally, have to eat.
A primary reason I wrote the book was to incorporate as much helpful information as I could in one accessible place, so that people who want to know about anything from drown-proofing to shark attacks can find basic knowledge, at least, in a single source. A lot of people who have heard about the book have shared your reaction: "Why haven't I heard this stuff before?"
B&N.com: Earth without wild animals would lack something vital. However, if humans are going to share the planet with any wild animals then we must understand that they have their own agendas and act accordingly. Then there is the gray area where wild animals have learned that we will provide them with something they want -- a pact that must not be broken. Your story about your son and the moray eel was a sad commentary on how we put these animals into a situation where a misunderstanding is inevitable and they will be the losers. Do you see this becoming even more of a problem in the near future?
PB: Yes. As more and more people interact with marine animals, misunderstandings will be inevitable. Any time a human has intentional contact with a wild animal -- be it a lion, a bear, a dolphin or a shark -- he or she is taking a calculated risk. The more you know, of course, the better your calculations can be, but there will always be mistakes.
B&N.com: It seems like the bottom line is that the author of Jaws has become a shark hugger (metaphorically, of course)?
PB: Never, ever, try to hug a shark. It's okay to hug a tree, because trees haven't been known to bite, but a shark...? Very poor idea.
What I definitely have become (to the best of my ability) is a shark protector, a shark advocate, a shark appreciator, and above all, a shark respecter. Sharks have an extremely important place in the natural order; they've been around, practically unchanged, for 30 or 40 million years, and we're just beginning to learn how complex and wonderful they are. I know so much more about sharks than I did when I wrote Jaws that I couldn't possibly write the same story today.
B&N.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
PB: I hope that Shark Trouble will entertain readers, of course, but I hope, too, that it will give them some helpful information. Finally, I hope it will dispel many of the myths about sharks -- some of which, I know, Jaws helped perpetuate.
Perhaps the most surprising single thing about Jaws to me is that it has had such a long life. These days, I receive about 1,000 letters a year from youngsters who weren't alive when the book was published or the movie released, and none of them ever writes about how scary the story is or how dangerous sharks are. They all think sharks are awesome, neat, cool, and fascinating. They all want to know more about sharks.
For a writer -- for this writer, anyway -- there's nothing more gratifying.
|
|
