Swimmer breaks record to protect sharks ahead of 50th anniversary of ‘Jaws’

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of director Steven Spielberg‘s landmark blockbuster Jaws, a British South African athlete has broken a rare swimming record in an effort to raise awareness about “ecocide” against sharks.

After previously announcing his intention to become the first person in history to swim around the Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., island, 55-year-old Lewis Pugh achieved the feat on Monday upon completing his 12-day, 60-mile swim around the locale in an effort to “highlight the perilous plight of sharks around the world,” his website reads.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of Jaws, the movie that portrayed the ocean’s apex predator as a ‘monster,’ sparking irrational fear and retribution,” it continues. “Shockingly, more than a third of shark species are now at risk of extinction. This is a disaster for ocean health.”

Pugh further explained to the Associated Press that he feels it’s unfair that sharks have been portrayed as “villains” and “cold-blooded killers” in media, and hoped that — in braving his collectively 24-hour swim through 47-degree waters around Martha’s Vineyard — he could change public perception and encourage further protections for the sea creatures.

“We’ve been fighting sharks for 50 years,” he told the outlet after finishing the endeavor near the Edgartown Harbor Lighthouse located roughly around one of the areas where Jaws was filmed ahead of its June 20, 1975, theatrical release. “Now, we need to make peace with them.”

Pugh, who was in the past named a United Nations Patron of the Oceans, further highlighted thefishing-related deaths of around 100 million shark deaths per year since 2019.

“I think protecting sharks is the most important part of the jigsaw puzzle of protecting the oceans,” Pugh continued.

In a 2022 BBC interview, Spielberg spoke about his adaptation of the 1974 novel Jaws — which followed a large shark as it terrorized the fictional beach town of Amity Island — contributing to global sentiments about sharks.

“That’s one of the things I still fear — not to get eaten by a shark, but that sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sport fishermen that happened after 1975,” Spielberg told BBC Radio 4’s Lauren Laverne during the conversation, per Smithsonian. “II truly, and to this day, regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film.”

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Still, the movie — starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss — went on to become one of the most iconic hits in Hollywood history, grossing nearly $477 million on a budget of under $10 million.

Its John Williams-composed score also became one of the most memorable cinematic soundtracks in history, and earned three Oscar victories — though it ultimately lost Best Picture to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the 1976 Academy Awards.