Despite becoming a cultural phenomenon, two of the men behind Jaws worried about the impact of their fictional predator on real-life sharks.
3 points
People have an understandably strong emotional reaction to shark attacks as they are a horrible way to die. But the fear is massively overblown.
For years, I lived 2 minutes walk from the beach and swam/surfed every day.
Statically, the 2-minute walk crossing two streets on the way was about 1,000 times more dangerous than the sharks in the water.
That doesn’t mean I am blind to the risks of either. But Jaws caused a spate of people going out and actively killing sharks, mostly species that never attack humans at all.