The Real Horrors of Sharksploitation
“Live every week like it’s Shark Week”- Tracy Jordan, 30 Rock.
I’ll never forget the first time I watched Jaws. It was the first real horror movie I ever saw and it sparked a fascination with sharks that I’m assuming I’ll have for the rest of my life. I remember going to my elementary school library the next day and checking out every book I could find on great whites and the iconic megalodon. The more I learned about sharks, the more amazing they became. Sharks have insanely good senses, can swim at crazy speeds, and some can even live in freshwater. I absolutely adore sharks, but I hated learning about what humans are doing to them.
Sharks have been around for 450 million years. But, in recent years their population has been steadily declining. Much of that decline is due to the killer reputation sharks have gained from sharksploitation films and books (one of my all-time favorite subgenres). Because so many of us think of sharks as mindless people-eating machines, there’s very little concern for the fact that they’re near extinction.
The Problem
100 million sharks are killed every year by humans. If this sounds like an insane number, it’s because it absolutely is. Sharks are overfished for many reasons, the largest being shark fin soup. Fishers will cut off a shark’s fins and throw their bodies back into the water where they eventually drown (most sharks have to swim constantly for the water to move over their gills and allow them to breathe). Additionally, sharks are killed for their teeth (never buy shark teeth unless you know you’re buying from an ethical source), oil, and skin (usually for boots and purses). If all of that isn’t enough, humans also kill sharks for sport! Many fishers (especially in the U.S. because this is somehow legal) compete in shark fishing tournaments where the bigger the shark, the bigger the prize. They often hang their catches like the tiger shark in Jaws.
WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO (sorta)
"Monster Shark Tournament 2014" by Dennis Heller is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Jaws
Jaws shifted the public view of sharks. While people have feared sharks for centuries, Jaws insisted that they were cunning animals capable of revenge. This inspired a fear and hatred of sharks in a whole new generation. I’m not trying to blame anyone involved with Jaws, because it’s a fintastic film, but we have to stop the stigma around sharks. The author of the Jaws novel, Peter Benchley, is even quoted saying “Knowing what I know now, I could never write that book today. Sharks don’t target human beings, and they certainly don’t hold grudges.”
So what’s the solution? We obviously can’t stop making sharksploitation stories, they’re way too awesome. I believe the solution is to do exactly what Peter Benchley did: educate people on sharks to end their killer reputation. If anything, I think this could make sharksploitation even scarier because the attacks would seem so much more unusual. I also think we could take a page out of The Meg’s book, and raise awareness about shark killing. While The Meg tells a story of a giant man-eating shark, it also discusses shark finning and the horrors that the shark population is currently facing. That’s pretty cool, and I encourage aquatic horror writers to consider doing something similar.
Some Meg(alodon) Facts
My favorite shark of all time is the megalodon. Megalodons were prehistoric sharks that could get as long as 60 ft (that’s about 10 Nicholas Cages). They had a bite force of around 40,000 lbs and are said to have been able to attack and eat humpback whales. Scientists say that they went extinct 3 million years ago, but many have claimed to see a megalodon since then. I like to think that we haven’t explored enough of the oceans to know for sure, and that one is still out there. What do you think?
Shark week is August 9th this year and I recommend you to have a shark movie marathon beforehand for the full experience. Keep in mind that not everything on Shark Week is accurate!
For more, check out the Fin Flicks podcast here.
