National Geographic’s SharkFest is almost here again as the annual programming event gets ready to kick off on Sunday, July 2nd. In anticipation of the schedule that includes all-new original programming, we have an exclusive first look at Shark Eat the shark with a revealing clip Jaw’ impact on the Great White population.
On the 48th anniversary of the film’s release (originally released in theaters on June 20, 1975), shark fisherman-turned-environmentalist Bryan McFarlane gets candid about how the film’s negative view of sharks once affected the population robust of the Great White. “When people used to catch great whites, this coast was the place to catch them.”
(Credit: Courtesy of the Everett Collection)
In the 1970s and 1980s, MacFarlane was one of many who hunted the shark species for sport. “There are people in the world who want to show off their machoness and catch the biggest, scariest animal in the sea, and that’s the Great White, so that was the incentive…” McFarlane says in the clip above.
He further elaborates on the subject, noting, “If I go back 40 years, when I went out to catch a shark, I would see 20 to 30 to 40 great whites a day, even before we put bait in the water. We couldn’t believe it. They were always there, but—the big one—when Jaw the movie came out, that was the turning point. Everyone hated or wanted to kill a Mare, and I, unfortunately, was one of them.”
“You brought him back, hundreds of people were coming down the pier, you hooked the shark and you’d be a hero.” Now, that is not the case and McFarlane has since changed his ways, especially since hunting Great Whites has been banned. Viewers can now see how he feels about his actions in the clip above.
As moviegoers will recall, Jaw centers around the beach community of Amity Island, which is terrorized by a killer great white shark. Directed by Steven Spielberg and filmed in Martha’s Vineyard, the film starred Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss. Together, their characters hunted the shark with mixed results.
The film sparked a fear of sharks in many, and McFarlane is one of several conservationists working to rehabilitate the creatures’ image for the public. Don’t miss any more Shark Eat the shark when SharkFest starts in July on Nat Geo, along with several other shark-related programs.
Shark Eat the sharkSeries premieres Sunday, July 2, 9/8c, Nat Geo, Disney+ & Hulu