The last time I saw Peter Benchley alive we were backstage in a theater waiting to go on. Benchley was to introduce the documentary “Blue Water, White Death” produced by Peter Gimbel in 1971. The late department store heir and famed underwater explorer set out to film the great white shark. His quest took him around the world.
Benchley lived next door to Stan Waterman, a cameraman on Gimbel’s expedition. When Stan first showed his neighbor the film, Benchley was awed to see great white sharks attacking cages. While Gimbel may have lacked common sense, he made up for it with courage as he left his shark cage and swam in open water with great whites. They had been attracted by chumming with fish blood and offal.
It was this film that inspired Peter Benchley to write “Jaws.” In those moments backstage, Benchley told me that he regretted writing “Jaws” the way he did. The film provoked killing sharks needlessly, wastefully. We kill what we fear: be it “savage” animals in African jungles or predators that nature has honed to preserve the balance in nature. Kill or imprison wild creatures in animal freak shows for entertainment of customers, detriment of the natural world.
Shark feeding forays have become popular. Divers watch as chum baits them to come close to compete and snap at the food. This brings in good money to the operator, albeit illegal in Florida waters. Shark feeding is conducted beyond Florida’s three-mile limit.
“I do not support feeding sharks. Last summer, promoters wanted a shark-killing tournament. It was to take place in the area where sharks are being fed off Jupiter. The issue has become a great controversy among divers,” said Ben Galemmo, captain of ScubaTyme III, a dive boat out of the Boynton Harbor Marina, and an avid diver.
Returning after dives offshore in our waters surrounding Palm Beach County, I am often asked: “Did you see any sharks?” The question is usually followed by comments about not going in the water, fear of sharks or questions about shark attacks. Yes, there are incidents of shark attacks on humans. When it happens it is sensational news.
Statistics kept by the Florida Museum of Natural History reveal that there have been some 900 shark attacks on humans in Florida since 1837. Around the world, there averages about 70 shark attacks a year, five of those result in deaths. Far more people are likely to be electrocuted by sticking a fork in a toaster, actually 700 died last year that way, 300 of those in the U.S. Of course, no one wants to be that slight statistic, hurt in any way by a household appliance or ocean dweller.
I was diving out of Boynton Beach aboard ScubaTyme III. Retired Palm Beach County Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike Burroughs, a veteran local diver, surfaced telling that a bull shark swam so close to him he could touch it. Mike didn’t have his camera with him. I was lucky to photograph a 10-foot nurse shark. It was “sleeping” under a ledge. I was able to get close enough, without disturbing it, to take pictures of its gills pulsing.
Most species of sharks must constantly swim to flush water over their gills to extract oxygen. Some species of sharks have powerful cheek muscles that enable the shark to gulp water then push it through their gills while resting. My friend, famed Mexican film maker Ramon Bravo, was first to observe “sleeping” sharks off his home island of Isla Mujeres. The sharks didn’t move for long periods of time, aerating their gills with muscles. Bravo filmed the event for television then invited Jacques Cousteau to join him on dives and film them for his television series.
Locally, nurse sharks and Caribbean reef sharks are often found under ledges or in caverns and appear to be asleep. The sharks are really dozing while muscles in their cheeks push water back from their mouths through gill slits on the side of their heads. Sharks are often seen to face into currents enabling water to enter and flush through past their gills extracting oxygen.
Consider the fact that 70 million sharks are killed by humans every year and dwindling shark populations world wide is understood. In the open ocean, in international waters, long liners spread their hooks 20 or more miles. Thousands of sharks are hooked. Some are considered by-catch, unwanted fish. They are simply thrown back into the ocean dead. Sharks are cartilaginous fishes; they have no bones. Once they fight a line, even if released, they hemorrhage and bleed to death internally. Sharks are caught, their fins cut off. Asian markets pay huge sums for pulverized shark fin used as aphrodisiac and for use in soup. Shark finners do not want the body and routinely throw carcasses of sharks back into the ocean. Shark fishing is profitable. Locally, shark fishermen were permitted by federal authorities to catch sharks. They could fin them but were required to land the carcass.
Very few divers are attacked by sharks; when it happens, these are provoked attacks. Divers may be spearing fish. Some spear fishermen leave the catch attached to their belts, some more wisely send the fish up in lift bags to be retrieved by a boatman. Some foolish divers pull on nurse shark tails while they are resting under ledges. The shark is startled. Although nurse sharks have smaller teeth used for grinding shellfish and crustaceans, they still bite and often do not let go. “Look, but don’t touch” is advice given in dive training. Some people just never learn to use common sense.
Near shore schools of bait fish attract predators. Swimmers and surfers are attacked by accident. Even a little shark bite can prove dangerous with grave consequences. Sharks hunt near shore in early morning and evening. My friends got out of the water north of the Boynton Inlet. I remained looking for remains of a shipwreck. As I came ashore, in not more than 5 feet of water, 10 feet off the beach, a large bull shark swam between me and shore chasing a school of fish.
Dr. Samuel Gruber, of University of Miami’s Rosensteil School of Marine Science, tagged great white sharks. He recorded them swimming just off Miami Beach. Sharks are everywhere.
“Healthy reefs equal abundance of sharks,” Galemmo declared, adding, “Sharks support a healthy ecosystem.”
It is hard to fathom killing 70 million sharks worldwide in one year. Without sharks, as ranchers have found in the American west by killing off wolves and coyotes, other things get out of hand.
Humans have become sorcerer’s apprentices on a scale never before imagined. Chemicals, chemical products, waste and development have destroyed land and water resources. The ocean is our last frontier. Without it there can be no life on Earth. Sharks play a vital role in the ocean’s ecosphere.
John Christopher Fine is a marine biologist and expert in maritime affairs. He is a Master Scuba Instructor-Instructor Trainer and has authored 27 books.
