narrative.ly
SHARK TALES volume one 路 issue one 路 june 2015
“When you enter the ocean you enter the food chain, and not necessarily at the top.�
Jacques Cousteau
World Below the Brine Walt Whitman Photo Courtesy Martin Robson/Flickr
The world below the brine; Forests at the bottom of the sea—the branches and leaves, Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange lowers and seeds— the thick tangle, the openings, and the pink turf, Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, white, and gold— the play of light through the water, Dumb swimmers there among the rocks—coral, gluten, grass, rushes— and the aliment of the swimmers, Sluggish existences grazing there, suspended, or slowly crawling close to the bottom, The sperm-whale at the surface, blowing air and spray, or disporting with his lukes, The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leopard, and the sting-ray; Passions there—wars, pursuits, tribes—sight in those ocean-depths— breathing that thick-breathing air, as so many do; The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us, who walk this sphere; The change onward from ours, to that of beings who walk other spheres.
PROSE 5
HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING
POETRY 4
THE MALDIVE SHARK Herman Melville
AND LOVE THE GREAT WHITE SHARK Kea Krause
14
ASHORE Ernest Hilbert
15
HOW THE CREATOR OF ‘JAWS’ BECAME THE SHARK’S
GREATEST DEFENDER
22
THE SHARK Lord Alfred Douglas
David Dowling
ATTACK 23 THE SHARK THAT SHOOK THE 1700S John Wolper & Damien Jay
32
I WONDER WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO BE DROWNED? Robert Graves
Cover Photo Courtesy Elias Levy/Flickr Title Page Photo Courtesy Lwp Kommunikáció/Flickr
4
The Maldive Shark Herman Melville
About the Shark, phlegmatical one, Pale sot of the Maldive sea, The sleek little pilot-ish, azure and slim, How alert in attendance be. From his saw-pit of mouth, from his charnel of maw They have nothing of harm to dread, But liquidly glide on his ghastly lank Or before his Gorgonian head; Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth In white triple tiers of glittering gates, And there ind a haven when peril’s abroad, An asylum in jaws of the Fates! They are friends; and friendly they guide him to prey, Yet never partake of the treat— Eyes and brains to the dotard lethargic and dull, Pale ravener of horrible meat.
Photo Courtesy Brianna Fairhurst/Unsplash
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
5
H OW I LEARNED
S TO P WO R R Y I N G A N D L OV E T H E G R E AT WHITE SHARK TO
AS TOLD BY KEA KRAUSE
By the time the news of Doug Niblack’s shark
pool, ifty feet out. The shark had attacked
attack reached my inbox, it had been ive years
from below, like a locomotive, knocking away
since I retired my own surfboard.
Niblack’s board. He rode its back until the shark
“It was just like the movies,” Niblack told reporters. His longboard struck something that
became disoriented, turned and swam out to sea, leaving him to paddle safely to the beach.
resembled a rock, except the rock had a dorsal
For many weekends over the course of many
in and was moving. A Northwest native and
years, I too had surfed the Cove. Reading the
a regular at the “The Cove,” a popular surf-
story from the safety of my New York ofice
ing break along the Oregon coast, Niblack was
cubicle, I looked down at my legs in relief. Sell-
aware that sharks there attacked with some fre-
ing my board and wetsuit had been the right
quency, and he was now standing on one.
choice. An anxiety inside me abated; I felt like
To witnesses on shore, Niblack looked as
I had left a bank just minutes before a robbery.
though he was standing knee-deep in a whirl-
Suring belongs to thrill seekers. Elusive per-
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NARRATIVE.LY
Photo Courtesy Nicola Anderson/Unsplash
A GREAT WHITE SHARK CAN EAT A SEAL WHOLE IN ONE FATAL SWOOP.
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
7
I WAITED FOR A TWO-TON FORCE TO STRIKE ME FROM BELOW AT FORTY MILES PER HOUR AND RIP ONE OF MY DANGLING LEGS FROM MY BODY.
fect waves, the charge of paddling to catch them
me to sense the shadow of a large ish emerging
and the rush of riding down their steep faces are
beneath me.
all elements of dreams and addictions. But what
Research helped me to make sense of the
movies and surf videos don’t show is the wait-
beast that held my imagination hostage. I loved
ing. To reach the highs, you must spend count-
that carcharodon carcharias was essentially a
less hours in the water, alone with your thoughts
spectacular dinosaur still roaming our seas, and
and the sound of harmless chops lapping against
I developed a late-night habit of watching the
your board while you wait for waves.
species on YouTube.
During these lulls, most surfers’ heads are
Then, about a year and a half ago, I discov-
giddy with the prospect of glittering, curling
ered a website called Ocearch. With high-octane
crests. Mine was illed with beady black eyes and
graphics and social media integration, it seemed
rows of serrated teeth. They waited for waves;
rather lashy for a non-proit and felt more
I waited for a two-ton force to strike me from
like a webpage for an extreme sport like moto-
below at forty miles per hour and rip one of my
cross. But Ocearch was the name of an oceanic
dangling legs from my body.
research ship outitted with a custom-made lift
Anxiety prevented me from enjoying the sport, and it occurred to me that my brain and
used to capture and tag great whites in order to study their migratory patterns.
those belonging to real surfers were very dif-
I became consumed by one of the site’s fea-
ferent organs. During my ive years in Oregon I
tures, the Global Shark Tracker. Dotting a satel-
faked it as a surfer. But my fear of sharks turned
lite map of the world were “pings” representing
fanatical. Violent images of sharks antagonizing
tagged sharks journeying the coastal shores of
small towns from horror classics had burrowed
the Northeast United States and South Africa.
their way too deeply into my mind.
The pings came in two colors. If a shark hadn’t
Even after I hung up my gear, I couldn’t shake
surfaced in more then thirty days, its ping was
the specter of the shark. Treading water in the
blue. A brighter and more urgent orange ping
deep end of a swimming pool was enough for
indicated the shark had made surface contact
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NARRATIVE.LY
anywhere between the past thirty days and twenty-four hours.
But Mary Lee had other plans. This independent-minded shark poked around the Mid-Atlan-
Ocearch also names their tagged sharks and
tic for the irst part of February, and then, in an
gives them online proiles that reminded me of
unprecedented move, headed north to New York.
the few times I had used the popular matchmak-
Cheeky status updates tracked her progress.
ing app Tinder. Some sharks’ proiles include a
“Mary Lee continues to the North while bend-
thumbnail picture of their dorsal in with the
ing to the West. Heading toward New Jersey/
eerie decoration of a little antenna, like the kind
New York City. OMG is Mary Lee a Jersey Girl?”
you would ind sticking out of the back of a Volk-
And eventually: “Mary Lee continues East! Is
swagen Golf. Others have sexier shots of their
she headed to the Gulf Stream to warm up?”
angular noses or entire bodies. Mature females
Status updates like these received hundreds
are often named after crewmembers’ mothers,
of likes, shares and comments. As Mary Lee’s
while others are bestowed with odd, abstract
travels progressed, so did the interest of Ocearch
monikers, similar to names you might ind on
followers. Facebook friends left comments
the hull of a boat, like Success, Courage and Vin-
expressing their fascination with the shark, even
dication.
affection for her: “I think she is lonely and look-
I got acquainted with the Ocearch sharks by
ing for love!” one commenter posted. Mary Lee’s
clicking their pings and studying their dossiers,
rogue winter won me over, too. Maybe she just
making personal connections with each one. I
needed a break from things. We’ve all been there
fell in love with Mary Lee, a sixteen-foot female
once or twice.
tagged off Cape Cod, and also with Oprah, a
It got to the point where I would check the
smaller female from Mossel Bay, South Africa,
pings of the Ocearch sharks during my morning
whose name obviously evokes someone wise and
coffee and make sure they were a safe distance
deeply trustworthy.
from my Brooklyn apartment. I had dark premo-
Ocearch’s Facebook page boasts more than
nitions that one day I would open the Ocearch
250,000 “likes.” At one point last year, Mary Lee’s
page and see a headline reading, “Mary Lee
rare migration path made her particularly popu-
devours Florida teen,” but was relieved when
lar. Though sharks’ migration patterns are still
I found them reliably going about their sharky
largely unknown, many scientists suspect great
lives, snacking on wounded seals and cruising
whites, like other large ish, like to retreat to
the oceans. Witnessing the tagged few reassured
warmer climes in winter months — and indeed,
me that the rest of the great white population
most of those tagged on Ocearch do just that.
was likely up to the same docile business. Simi-
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
9
BUT SHARKS AREN’T PEOPLE, DON’T EAT OUT AT RESTAURANTS, DON’T GO ON DATES WITH OTHER SHARKS, AND DON’T GET THEMSELVES INTO CUTE COMPROMISING POSITIONS LIKE KITTENS IN COFFEE CUPS. lar to a Doppler report for fair weather, Ocearch’s
But sharks aren’t people, don’t eat out at res-
Global Shark Tracker made me feel in control of
taurants, don’t go on dates with other sharks and
this particular predator, like goldish I had won at
don’t get themselves into cute compromising posi-
a carnival.
tions like kittens in coffee cups. My relationship to
Assigning personalities to animals is anything
the Ocearch sharks wasn’t one of friendship, but I
but a new phenomenon. Disney has been at it
was warming to them. And meanwhile, Mary Lee’s
for years; from the Bambi era to “March of the
Facebook friends aren’t afraid of her; they just
Penguins,” the studio has given charming traits to
want her to be happy. “I think she is just trying to
mammals and sea creatures alike in order to tell
survive and ind something to eat!” wrote one fan.
stories of romance, courage and sacriice. In the
“Bless her heart out there in the big ole ocean…”
original trailer for “Bambi,” a voiceover proclaims,
Once, as the sun was setting out over the Pacif-
“Bambi! The story of a deer who learns love means
ic, I sat on my board nervously waiting for a wave
many things to many people” — even though all
and a cute harbor seal popped up next to me. It
the “people” in the movie are skunks, rabbits and
had long black eyelashes and blinked at me as we
owls.
both loated side by side in the ocean. Flaring in
By anthropomorphizing great whites on social
and out, its nostrils created a cloud of condensa-
media, Ocearch is applying this formula to a
tion around its bald head. I looked it straight in
predator, which is a marketable way to promote
its face and realized that I was within ive feet of
shark research, but could also potentially change
actual shark bait. We were a two-course meal.
our relationship to the ish. That we might care about a great white’s well-being, even if it’s about
“Get away from me!” I screamed. Fear had distorted my voice into a pitch I didn’t recognize.
their emotional health rather than something real,
“Get out of here!” I yelled again, throwing
like their dwindling population (they are listed
scoops of water at its face. The seal disappeared
as ‘vulnerable’ on the WWF extinction risk list)
beneath the water and playfully reappeared on
is progress. By giving endangered animals names
the other side of my board. One of us is not getting
and personalities that remind you of your mother,
eaten, I thought to myself, swinging around on to
conservationists are able to draw compassion out
my belly and paddling for my life back to shore.
of otherwise indifferent people.
As surfers, we nicknamed dusk “dinner time,”
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NARRATIVE.LY
AFTER A BIG MEAL, A GREAT WHITE SHARK CAN LAST UP TO THREE MONTHS BEFORE NEEDING TO EAT AGAIN.
because this was supposedly when sharks were
popular series irst aired in 1987 and is now
most actively feeding. Our vocabularies swirled
the longest running “event” on cable television,
with foreboding shark references passed down to
with between 20 and 30 million people tuning
us by suring lore and through the media. In real-
in annually — and I’ve been among its most reli-
ity, the apex predator trolled the waters beneath
able viewers.
us, crucially moderating that great underwater
During Shark Week, viewers can watch a vari-
ecosystem by eating the ill and weak, keeping
ety of shows about the species, from “Top Five
life below the surface clean and moving. But
Eaten Alive” — a show that reenacts ive of the
we didn’t care: A certain notoriety made us fear
worst shark attacks of all time — to “Ocean of
for our limbs while out on the ocean. It didn’t
Fear: Worst Shark Attack Ever,” about the survi-
matter that shark attacks are black swan events
vors of the sunken USS Indianapolis being ter-
— anomalies, misunderstandings. The idea of
rorized by sharks.
sharks potentially mistaking humans for seals is
One year, “MythBusters,” a popular Discovery
ruinous to their reputation, and enough to scare
Channel series dedicated to crafting scientiic
me right out of the water.
experiments that test the validity of rumors and
The relatable narratives Ocearch gives their
old wives tales, did their own Shark Week epi-
tagged sharks worked to assuage my fears.
sode. Here was an opportunity to allay some of
Sharks who were just looking to get by struck me
the negative shark mythology! Instead, the show
as substantially less murderous than sharks look-
worked on iguring out if sharks were more
ing to terrorize humans, as depicted in movies
interested in eating humans who are thrashing
like “Jaws” and “Deep Blue Sea.”
or humans who play dead. In the experiment,
But while movies use fear to sell tickets, TV
the show’s hosts donned mesh body suits and
shows use fear to sell science, or their version
jumped into water swarming with sharks, then
of it. The Discovery Channel spends seven days
inserted themselves into their path, impressing
each summer dedicating a full slate of program-
upon viewers that their courage was all for the
ming to the species called Shark Week. The
sake of a little information.
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
While the aim of these shows is to participate
ment as ishermen battled sharks on the end of
in myth-busting, the opportunity to educate is
thin lines, getting dangerously close to riled-up
often overshadowed by the sensational depic-
predators. Once the shark was successfully lured
tions of sharks as man-eaters while TV hosts
to the lift and raised out of the water, both the
tempt nature to take a bite.
wrangling and science crew descended upon the
These production techniques are rampant in Shark Week programming. On one show a nar-
lifeless ish like a NASCAR crew working urgently on an ailing stock car in the pit.
rator says, “Great whites top the charts in unpro-
While “Shark Wranglers” depicted a scien-
voked human attacks,” but doesn’t clarify how
tiic mission, the show’s occasional suggestion
rare an attack actually is. In another, the nar-
of blood sport eclipsed the fact that the tagging
rator tells the viewer to “sit back, relax and try
and contact with the sharks was unprecedented
not get eaten.” Last year Shark Week debuted
and could lead to greater understanding of the
with a “documentary” about the Megalodon, a
species as a whole.
massive but extinct shark species. The special
One Shark Week episode called “Ultimate
dramatized the shark’s violent capabilities, then
Air Jaws” did prove to me that great whites
misled viewers to believe that perhaps the shark
don’t need to be provoked or treated like fuzzy
is still out there, lurking in oceans’ depths.
animals in order for them to be seen as truly
Even the Ocearch crew briely had a show on
astounding creatures.
the History Channel called “Shark Wranglers,”
In the episode, a photographer uses a new
which documented their tagging efforts. The
camera called the Phantom to capture great
show depicted a crew aboard a large boat that
whites breaching off the coast of South Africa.
trolled the waters off the coast of South Africa
The camera is one of Hollywood’s fastest, used
in search of great whites. Scientists doing the
to ilm scenes intended to be shown in extreme
tagging relied on several sport isherman to land
slow motion. It takes pictures at 1,000 frames
the sharks aboard Ocearch’s lift. Drama perme-
per second and can slow down a breech that
ated the show, with shouts of bawdy encourage-
only lasts for an instant, taking a full minute to
A GREAT WHITE SHARK CAN SWIM 35 MILES PER HOUR AND COVER OVER 6,000 MILES IN JUST UNDER 100 DAYS.
11
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SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE THAT THERE MAY BE FEWER THAN 10,000 GREAT WHITE SHARKS LEFT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. let it unravel before the viewer’s eyes.
cavernous mouth.
“Ultimate Air Jaws” features nearly a half-
Similarly, watching the great white leap sky-
hour of slow-motion footage of great whites
wards from the ocean in “Ultimate Air Jaws” felt
mid-attack on a seal decoy. In one assault, a
like getting in touch with my inner animal. The
shark’s conical snout breaks the water’s sur-
reality of a body designed millions of years ago
face like the periscope of a submarine. Next to
to rule an entire food chain was on dramatic dis-
emerge from the ocean are its stony eyes, rolled
play. For once a show wasn’t pretending a shark
back protectively in their sockets. Soon the
could be funny, happy, mad or maniacal, just like
entire upper body of the shark is out of the water
us. Instead it was shown relying on instinct to
and rotating through the sky. A sharp ridge runs
hunt prey — a magniicent and complex process
down the length of the shark’s back, giving it a
that humans haven’t engaged in for thousands
steely, mechanized feel, like a missile. Its gills
of years. Television makes it seem like sharks are
lap rhythmically, pushing out cascades of white,
just another element in our universe, but upon
foamy water. Finally its tail whips out of the
the ocean, we tread and backstroke as mere
ocean and the entire great white is airborne,
specks in theirs.
particles of water bursting from its wetsuit-like
Once, during a panicked paddle back to shore
lesh, teeth tearing into the limp seal decoy, an
after allowing my imagination to spook me out
amazing animal in mid-air.
of the water, I briely realized the only trait we
When I was in Oregon, after sun-soaked days of suring I often camped along the Paciic coast.
have in common with sharks and should associate with them is survival.
In my tent at night, I dreamed of clouds of red
Now knowing sharks much better, I have
water, my fears lirting and mingling with obses-
developed a certainty about the animal: Their
sion. Mornings brought a strange reassurance: If
existence and ours are miracles of the same cali-
a shark ever mistook me for prey, at least I would
ber. These days, I long to get back into the water.
inally get to know what one felt like. At least I
Years ago, on a fall day after classes, I drove
could inally run my ingers along its sandpaper
out to the Oregon coast for a sunset surf ses-
skin, feel its warm breath emanating from that
sion. The grey sky made for poor visibility in
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
the water, and the normally emerald Paciic had
at the knee on both sides of my board, I had a
darkened to solid black by that evening. As I
hard time staying sane, even while out on the
sat waiting for a wave, I felt something brush
water. But if it wasn’t all in my head, if it actually
against my leg. With lightning speed, I was on
was the probing brush of a great white shark,
my stomach with my legs out of the water, pad-
I’d like to think it was only trying to survive out
dling feverishly to the beach. Too scared to look
there in that big ocean.
13
back, I never did see what had grazed me. Chances are it was my imagination. On days like that, when I could see my legs disappearing
Photo Courtesy Nick Diamantidis/Unsplash
14
Ashore Ernest Hilbert
The harpooned great white shark heaves onto sand, Nudged by waves, red cavern of dripping teeth. A crowd comes. Loud gulls wreathe the booming mist. Blue lies cloud the ishy sunset, and land. One, sated, is slapped to a smear beneath A child’s quick hand and then licked from his wrist. Compass and munitions are sunk with skulls In wrecks beneath old storms, glass angels And hourglasses, lint of sunlight through motes, Violence of slit sails, drowned crews, split hulls, Quiet draw of dust, too, and all that it pulls, The slow leak and loss of each thing that loats— Flail and wild eye, lecked spit of crippled horse, Crust of diamonds on the throat of a corpse.
Photo Courtesy Dan Machold/Flickr
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
15
H OW T H E C R E ATO R O F
‘ J AW S ’ BECAME THE
SHARK’S G R E AT E S T DEFENDER AS TOLD BY DAVID DOWLING
Earlier this summer, thirty-nine years after the
one seems very concerned. That’s likely because
release of the blockbuster movie “Jaws,” news
the backlash against shark-phobia has gained
outlets everywhere reported a sharp rise in the
momentum, and more people are now aware
population of great white sharks in the western
of how truly rare shark attacks are. According
Atlantic Ocean.
to the International Shark Attack File, only four
Yet nobody seemed too panicked by the news.
people died in shark attacks in the United States
What a difference four decades can make.
between 2003 and 2008, compared to 108 cat-
During the heyday of “Jaws,” when the ilm spawned an international panic about sharks, such reports would have sparked pandemoni-
tle-induced fatalities. Yes, cows are more likely to kill humans than sharks.
um, clearing the beaches of swimmers. Yet for
Before our culture came to such conscious-
the past decade, the numbers of great whites off
ness, we had “Jaws,” the product of author Peter
the coast of California have been rising, and no
Benchley and director Steven Spielberg’s vora-
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NARRATIVE.LY
THESE WERE NO LONGER SAVAGE LEVIATHANS AND MAN-EATING MONSTERS, BUT MUTILATED VICTIMS.
cious appetite for blood-drenched terror at sea.
Shark ins, heads and extracted jaws were
But Benchley, the man who reinvented the great
mounted on the pier railings of Montauk harbor;
white shark as the nemesis of humanity — a kind
full carcasses hung for days after being caught,
of Moby Dick of the modern era — would come
the ishermen and townspeople posing beside
to completely disavow this take on sharks.
their prizes. Harpoons, lances and knives of all
Like Dr. Frankenstein, Benchley could not
varieties festooned the wharf; photos lovingly
escape the carnage in the wake of his creation,
chronicling the exploits of the bounty hunters
and for the latter part of his career committed
adorned shops and restaurants.
himself to an all-out assault on shark killing
Montauk was the shark ishing capital of the
through the conservation movement, until his
world, and nobody hauled in more sharks than
death in 2006 of pulmonary ibrosis at the age
Frank Mundus. While researching his book —
of sixty-ive.
and in TV appearances after “Jaws” was released
“Peter was connected to the ocean all the way
— Benchley found his way onto the Cricket II,
from when he was a young child,” his widow
Mundus’s big-game ishing boat. Many assume
Wendy Benchley recalled in a recent interview.
that Mundus’s cocky swagger and deiance — he
Wendy, who has forged her own career in envi-
hated using the two-way radio — was the source
ronmental politics and policy, says Peter grew up
of Benchley’s character, the bounty hunter Quint.
in a literary family and was “always a sensitive
However, Wendy Benchley insists that “Quint
human being.”
was more nuanced…Frank was a very eccentric
In 1964, news of a 4,550-pound great white
individual”— a man with a massive ego many
shark caught off the coastal community of Mon-
said was out of control, on his quest to kill as
tauk on Long Island in New York initially ignited
many sharks as he could to get press attention.
Benchley’s imagination. A blue-blooded New
Wendy says her husband based Quint on com-
Englander raised in the summers on Nantucket,
plex igures with subtler views of sharks, like
the Exeter alum had been traveling the world
Rodney Fox, a South African ilmmaker and con-
since graduating from Harvard in 1961.
servationist who was bitten by a great white, sur-
A stroll along the pier in Montauk ifty years ago was like visiting a big-game ishing museum.
vived, and went on to pioneer cage diving. Benchley’s many TV spots from the ’70s are
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
THE FILM HAD AN ORIGINAL BUDGET SET AT $3.5 MILLION. IT BALLOONED TO $9 MILLION AT THE END OF PRODUCTION. ITS BOX OFFICE TOTAL CURRENTLY STANDS AT $471 MILLION. Peter and Wendy Benchley on an ocean dive/Narrative.ly
telling, particularly his cage dives. In one, he’s
Benchley made a name for himself in the media
captured wide-eyed and exhilarated, sitting
as an oceanic expert. Producers of shows like
breathless on the edge of the diving boat, fresh
“American Outdoorsman” found his earnest
from a close encounter with a great white shark.
manner, articulate Ivy-league bearing and movie
Gasping with equal parts ecstasy and terror from
star good looks perfect for the camera. They also
going face-to-face with the creature in the pro-
loved his penchant for coming face-to-face with
tective cage beneath the surface, Benchley looks
sharks, especially enormous ones.
as if he has just seen something miraculous.
But on a dive during the early 1980s in what
The dreaded “doll’s eyes” that haunt Bench-
seemed an oceanic paradise, “the horrors of the
ley’s own Ahab-esque character of Quint in
half-known life,” as Melville would have it, came
“Jaws” had the opposite effect on the author. To
a-haunting. While exploring the deep world of
him, they were nothing short of transcendent.
a nature preserve off Costa Rica called Cocos
The dive was just one of his many irsthand
Island, Benchley’s dance with the “momentary
encounters with sharks. Even before “Jaws,”
spasm of macho shark hunting,” as he later
through his work with National Geographic,
called it, abruptly changed.
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18
NARRATIVE.LY
THE SHARK WAS NICKNAMED BRUCE, AFTER SPIELBERG’S LAWYER. WHEN THINGS DIDN’T GO RIGHT AND SPIELNERG WAS ANGRY, HE CALLED BRUCE ‘THE GREAT WHITE TURD.’
Submerged deep beneath the surface, he wit-
slash of the knife.
nessed a scene that would forever change his life.
Perhaps most brutal is the tossing of the
After hours of diving in what seemed an Eden-
animal back into the sea still very much alive,
esque marine sanctuary, the ocean loor no longer
left to loat downward in a painful spasm of slow
was full of the boyhood wonder of his Nantucket
torturous death.
imagination. In a WildAid interview, he testiied
As Paul McCartney once said, “If slaughter-
to seeing “the bodies of corpses of inned sharks
houses had glass walls, we’d all be vegetarians.”
littering the bottom of the sea,” calling it “one of
The Cocos Island dive was Benchley’s glass wall
the most horrifying sights I have ever seen.” These
moment.
were no longer savage leviathans and man-eating monsters, but mutilated victims.
Wendy Benchley remembers the profound impact the Cocos Island dive had on her husband.
A result of a huge global market for shark in
“I do remember when he came back,” she recalls.
soup — a popular Chinese delicacy — the inning
“That is certainly an event he saw irsthand that
process as captured in the footage accompanying
really shook him. It’s one thing to know the sta-
Benchley’s WildAid interview is not for the feint
tistics, and another to see it irsthand.”
of heart. Fishermen seize the animals by harpoon
Carnage — the conquering of the giant 4,550-
or large calipers and haul them on deck, where
pound savage predator — drew Benchley to
they mercilessly slash side and dorsal ins in a
sharks. Now carnage, delivered by bounty hunt-
pool of crimson. The animal shows its agony in
ers and in commerce, drew him once again.
its contortions, jerking and struggling with each
Benchley’s dives after his dark epiphany at
THE CREW NEVER TESTED BRUCE IN OPEN WATER BEFORE FILMING BEGAN. WHEN IT WAS FINALLY PLACED IN THE OCEAN, BRUCE IMMEDIATELY SANK TO THE FLOOR.
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
19
Photo Courtesy Corey Holms/Flickr
Cocos Island increasingly revealed the dead and
added that if he were to do it all over again, the
dying creatures at the bottom of the sea, their
shark “would have to be written as the victim, for
dorsal ins hacked off, blood billowing into the
worldwide, sharks are much more the oppressed
waters like red smoke. The horror of his imagina-
than the oppressors.”
tion became all too real, and turned him into a conservation activist.
“Peter’s rendition of the great white shark as a terrifying monster inadvertently tapped into
“The shark in an updated version could not
people’s deepest fears,” Wendy writes on her web-
be the villain,” Benchley wrote in “Oceans in
site. The Cocos Island dive would tap into his own
Peril,” a piece for the 1995 Smithsonian Insti-
deepest fear that his novel may have contributed
tution traveling exhibit titled Ocean Planet. He
to the underwater mutilation he witnessed.
20
NARRATIVE.LY
Financing a vigorous shark conservation move-
Spielberg decided to make “Jaws” after pulling
ment with “Jaws” money, Benchley committed
a copy of the novel off his producer’s desk and
himself to the movement until his death in 2006.
inding himself immediately immersed. He con-
Details from the ilming of “Jaws” point to how
nected to its theme of a silent stalking predator,
Benchley always had a subtler view of sharks
like the one he had just masterfully depicted in
than many have supposed, voyages with the
his television movie “Duel.” But he had reserva-
macho shark-killer Mundus notwithstanding.
tions about its adaptability to the screen.
Spielberg, not Benchley, appears to have been
The 1974 Rolling Stone review of the novel
the real anti-shark propagandist. “If we don’t
“Jaws” by Michael A. Rogers relects a crucial
succeed in making this picture better than the
characteristic of the book commonly forgotten:
book, we’re in real trouble,” the director said in a
“None of the humans are particularly likable or
Millimeter ilm magazine interview July of 1974.
interesting.” Rogers confessed that “the shark
Benchley shot back in the same article: “Spiel-
was easily my favorite character, and one sus-
berg needs to work on character. He knows, latly, zero.”
pects Benchley’s also.” Benchley’s repertoire drew heavily from liter-
Spielberg was a twenty-seven-year-old wun-
ary inluences like Melville, while Spielberg was
derkind in one of his irst major productions.
“B-movie literate. When he must make decisions
This would be the movie that thrust him to fame.
about the small ways people behave, he reaches for movie clichés of the forties and ifties,” Benchley said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times during the summer of ilming. The same could be said about his lattening out of Benchley’s shark into a stock villain, which the director neatly folded into the role a B-movie summer monster. “Knowing what I know now,” Benchley later confessed, “I could never write that book today,” because “sharks don’t target human beings and they certainly don’t hold grudges,” he told the London Daily Express in 2006. Louie Psihoyos, director of “The Cove,”
Peter diving in Bermuda/Narrative.ly
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
the 2009 Academy Award-winning documen-
the ocean.”
tary about dolphin slaughter, formerly worked
According to National Geographic, swimmers
with Benchley atNational Geographic and is
have a one in 3.7 million chance of being killed
now wrapping up ilming of “6,” about the black
by a shark. Australia records the most shark
market for endangered species, including sharks.
attacks, with a high of 48 in 2008; the Australian
The ifty-seven-year-old Psihoyos received the
government has instituted a culling program in
Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in
response. But the majority of the sharks they’ve
Media, presented by the Blue Frontier Campaign
captured are species other than the great whites
in July of 2010.
that made the attacks.
I recently asked Psihoyos if he had any reserva-
Yet the number of sharks killed to prevent
tions about being a recipient and presenter of the
attacks pales in comparison to those slaughtered
Benchley Awards, given its namesake’s associa-
in the hunt for shark in soup. “The real culprits,”
tion with “Jaws.” He acknowledged that Bench-
Psihoyos says, “in extinguishing the oceans of
ley’s “public perception as the creator of ‘Jaws’ is
sharks is not ‘Jaws’ but the trade of their ins for
the one that endures. That’s why advocating the
shark in soup, a tasteless, nutrition-less delicacy
Benchley Awards is so important; his legacy is
that leads to the deaths of some 250,000 sharks
much richer and nuanced than that book and the
a day.”
popular ilm it spawned. The Benchley Awards
A great many of those lay at the bottom of the
are the Academy Awards for ocean conservation
sea off Cocos Island, where the real horror show
— they honor the real man and not the ictional
— the kind one never forgets — unveiled itself
universe he created.”
to Benchley, a bloody ritual that transformed the
While most viewers remember “Jaws” for its violence, there are also scientists, says Wendy Benchley, who were inspired to pursue research after reading and seeing “Jaws.” “Peter got hundreds, even thousands of letters from people saying, ‘You made me fascinated with the ocean,’” says Wendy Benchley. This side of “Jaws’” impact has been muted, she says, mainly because “the press has always gone with the ‘oh, ‘Jaws’ was so fearful’ perspective,” even though “it really stimulated an interest in
“Jaws” author into an advocate.
21
22
The Shark Lord Alfred Douglas
A treacherous monster is the Shark He never makes the least remark. And when he sees you on the sand, He doesn’t seem to want to land. He watches you take off your clothes, And not the least excitement shows. His eyes do not grow bright or roll, He has astonishing self-control. He waits till you are quite undressed, And seems to take no interest. And when towards the sea you leap, He looks as if he were asleep. But when you once get in his range, His whole demeanour seems to change. He throws his body right about, And his true character comes out. It’s no use crying or appealing, He seems to lose all decent feeling. After this warning you will wish To keep clear of this treacherous ish. His back is black, his stomach white, He has a very dangerous bite.
Photo Courtesy of Joe Pyrek/Flickr
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
23
THE
SHARK AT TAC K T H AT
SHOOK THE 1700S AS TOLD BY JOHN WOLPER & DAMIEN JAY
The men on the boat saw the shark irst. It
moved to the boat’s bow. Watson reappeared after
was swimming about 200 yards from the shore,
another two minutes, his foot gone below the
where the boat was anchored, and it was bearing
ankle, blood streaming into the water. The shark
down on a fourteen-year-old boy.
wasn’t far behind, moving in for a third time,
There wasn’t enough time to warn Brook Watson. The shark bit into his calf and dragged him underwater. The sailors paddled out to the spot where it had happened, hoping Watson
twisting through the water, opening its mouth wide. On the boat, the sailor raised his harpoon. The shark went in for the kill. The sailor plunged the spear into the water.
would break the surface. He didn’t. It took two
That moment, suspended in time, is immortal.
minutes for them to spot his body 100 yards
That true story was told in a letter, which was
away, and they rushed toward him, but the shark
printed by the Morning Chronicle and London
took him again before they arrived.
Advertiser nearly thirty years after the attack,
One of the sailors grabbed a harpoon and
which took place in 1749. Watson, by then a suc-
24
NARRATIVE.LY
John Singleton Copley’s “Watson and the Shark,” 1778 Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C./Narrative.ly
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
MORE THAN 70 PERCENT OF KNOWN VICTIMS OF GREAT WHITE SHARK ATTACKS SURVIVE. WHY? BECAUSE THE SHARK REALIZES IT GRABBED SOMETHING IT DOESN’T ACTUALLY WANT AND THEN SPITS THE PERSON BACK OUT.
cessful merchant, likely sent it himself. The fateful
— a signiicant deviation from the portraiture he
moment was also recreated in oil on canvas, six
was known for — would punch his ticket to the
by seven-and-a-half feet, and premiered to raves
top tier of artists, says Charles Brock, the asso-
at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Arts.
ciate curator of American and British paintings
“Watson and the Shark,” by John Singleton
at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Copley, took the attack and committed it to
Copley was already a prodigy. “Watson and the
canvas. The painting shows an incapacitated
Shark” was his bid to increase his renown.
Watson, his body shockingly white, his blonde
It did. Even though some criticisms were
hair undulating in the tide, helpless as the shark
lodged against the painting when it premiered
approaches. His rescue boat is nearby, pushing
(The General Evening Post wrote: “The boat,
through the water of Cuba’s Havana Harbor. One
however, does not seem suficiently agitated by
of the nine sailors aboard prepares to strike the
the water, in consequence of such a disaster,
shark with a spear.
and the head of the ish is made out in a very
John Singleton Copley’s “Watson and the
obscure manner”), within ten months Copley
Shark,” 1778. Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund,
had ascended from associate at the Royal Acad-
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
emy of the Arts to a full member. He had been
“This Picture is extremely well conceived in all its Parts, and appears to be the Result of mature
in London for just ive years; “Watson and the Shark” announced his arrival.
Relection,” wrote The Public Advertiser on April
“He’s strutting his stuff in that painting,” says
28, 1778. “In short, it is a Perfect Picture of its
Louis Masur, an American studies and history
Kind.”
professor at Rutgers who, in 1994, wrote about
The good reviews were heartening to Copley,
the painting for The New England Quarterly.
an American painter who had moved to London
Masur, who does not have a background in art,
largely to prove himself in the thriving British art
was inspired to research the piece after a trip to
world. He hoped that “Watson and the Shark”
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where both he
25
26
NARRATIVE.LY
Walter Hough- Synoptic series of objects in the United States National Museum illustrating the history of inventions Smithsonian Institution/ Wikimedia Commons
and his young son saw it on display and were
rection. They’ve noted the city of Havana in the
blown away by its enormity.
background, which Copley likely based on exist-
Discussion of the painting hasn’t ceased. The
ing illustrations.
late medical historian Gordon Bendersky called
They’ve discussed how the work was a water-
the piece “the original ‘Jaws’ attack” centuries
shed moment for the genre of history painting,
after its debut. Art historians continue to revisit
which had previously stuck to only the most far-
the painting’s complicated mesh of techniques
ranging historical or mythological moments, and
and ideas, debating Copley’s techniques and
now had dipped into, as Nikolaus Pevsner wrote
intentions — why, for instance, was a black sailor
in his In The Zenith of European Power, 1830-
placed in the center of the painting, completing
1870, “sensational contemporary reportage.”
a triangle with Watson and the shark? Was it a
Copley, a Bostonian who left for London on the
statement on slavery? They’ve
mentioned
And they’ve talked about the shark, because
that
Watson’s
body,
splayed in the water like a classical igure, is a
eve of the American Revolution, had likely never seen one.
nod to Copley’s reverence for artistic history, and
So it became a monster. The painting presents
perhaps points to the idea of Christian resur-
a bizarre version of the animal, its body twisting
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
impossibly, arching toward Watson, an “aberra-
man that has that misfortune perishes without
tion of reality, but effective as artistic expression.”
redemption: they have been seen to dart at him,
That’s according to George Burgess, director
like gudgeons to a worm.”
of the Florida Program for Shark Research. He
He continued: “Swimmers often perish by
uses the painting in lectures to illustrate the per-
them; sometimes they lose an arm or leg, and
ception of the animal over time.
sometimes are bit quite asunder, serving but for
That perception — of a monster, a killing
two morsels for this ravenous animal.”
machine — hasn’t really changed. In the mid-
In 1852, Samuel Maunder wrote that the
1600s, there was A West-Indian Ballad, a poem
white shark’s mouth is “suficiently wide to
purportedly based on a real event. In it, an impa-
enable it to receive the thigh, or even the body
tient sailor jumps off his moored boat and begins
of a man,” and is “killed by harpooning, which,
swimming to his love, who is waiting for him
owing to (its) strength, is often a long and dif-
on the shore. It’s a sweet sort of suspense, until,
icult operation.”
from nowhere:
The shark in “Watson and the Shark” is more
“Then through the white surf did she haste/
frightening, even — while Copley’s portrayal is
To clasp her lovely swain/ When, ah! a shark
in line with the animal’s treatment in the popular
bit through his waist/ His heart’s blood dy’d
culture of hundreds of years ago, he also misses
the main!/ He shriek’d! his half sprang from the
just enough points of shark anatomy to turn it
wave/ Streaming with purple gore/ And soon he
into a sea monster.
found a living grave/ And ah! was seen no more.”
For instance, Burgess says, the underside of
In 1776, around the time Watson commis-
the shark’s head is drawn faithfully, but its snout
sioned Copley to dramatize his close call, a natu-
is too long. Its head arches at an unnatural angle.
ralist named Thomas Pennant wrote this about
Historians agree that Watson was likely attacked
the white shark, in hisBritish Zoology:
by a tiger shark, which was common in Havana
“They are the dread of sailors in all hot cli-
Harbor. But the painting doesn’t necessarily
mates, where they constantly attend the ships
depict a tiger shark. According to Burgess, the
in expectation of what may drop overboard; a
painting renders something closer to a requiem
THE BIGGEST GREAT WHITE SHARK WAS CAUGHT IN 1993 OFF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. IT WAS A WHOPPING 20 FEET LONG.
27
28
NARRATIVE.LY
Artiicial Right Leg Science Museum, London/Wikimedia Commons
shark, or a “generic shark.” A study Copley completed to prepare for painting “Watson and the Shark.”
traits, smaller canvases with men and women standing center frame, leaning over a chair or propped up against a pillar.
Nothing is perfect. For all the master artists
“Watson and the Shark,” large and imposing,
to whom Copley pays tribute inWatson and the
dominates the room. Visitors will stand in front
Shark, the part he gets wrong is the shark, and
of it, and a docent, who always seems to linger in
that imbues the work with something unknow-
Copley’s room, will engage them. He’ll tell them
able, turning a dramatic event into something
that this event actually happened, that the boy
abjectly horrifying.
was truly attacked by a shark. Then, after they’ve
Copley painted three versions of “Watson and
surrendered themselves to the moment, he’ll tell
the Shark.” One hangs at the Detroit Institute
them that everything else in that room seems
of Arts. Another is on display at the Museum of
pretty tame by comparison.
Fine Arts, Boston. The original version is at the
The moment, in real life, continued. The shark
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in a
bore down on Watson a third time. Some sailors
small octagonal room dedicated to Copley. Three
prepared to haul Watson into the boat. Another
of the eight walls are doorways; paintings hang
readied his harpoon. Watson dangled in the water.
on the other ive. Four of those are Copley’s por-
The shark wouldn’t get a third bite — the
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
harpoon drove it away. The boy was brought
risks of amputation and post-op infection would
onto the boat.
have put Watson’s chances of dying at ninety-nine
By now, Watson was bleeding profusely.
percent or greater.
His right foot was lost. The shark had chewed
He made a full recovery in three months.
through his tibial arteries, and had taken him
The event deined the English-born Watson’s
underwater twice, dragging him hundreds of
life. Before the attack, he had been orphaned
yards each time, as Bendersky wrote in his 2002
and sent to Boston, where he lived with a rela-
paper, published in Perspectives in Biology and
tive named Levens, according to the National
Medicine. The shark had nearly drowned the
Gallery’s catalogue, American Paintings of the
fourteen-year-old. The sailors on the boat, Bend-
Eighteenth Century. Levens was a merchant;
ersky wrote, likely wouldn’t have been familiar
Watson tagged along, and in 1749 found himself
with how to use a tourniquet, so Watson would
swimming in Havana Harbor while Levens’s ship
have kept bleeding.
was docked.
Surgery could not be done at sea, so the boat
After the attack, Watson was itted with a
set course for land, a few hundred yards away.
wooden leg and learned to use it. He became a
Watson’s wound, severe already, had spent min-
merchant and eventually moved back to England
utes mingling with salt water.
for his career. As the tensions between the British
On land, a surgeon decided to amputate Wat-
colonies and England grew, Watson combined his
son’s leg below the knee. In the eighteenth and
work with government business. His leg became
nineteenth centuries, the chances of dying from
ammunition for some snide writings: John Wilkes,
an amputation ranged from ifty to 100 percent,
a political adversary, once wrote, “Modest Watson
Bendersky wrote.
on his wooden leg / That leg on which such won-
The surgeon made the cut. Watson’s life hung
29
drous art is shown / It almost seems to serve him as his own.” When Watson became a baronet in
in the balance. According to Bendersky, the combination of the shark bites, the near-drowning and the attendant
1803, he included in his coat of arms a foot severed at the ankle.
THE MOMENT, IN REAL LIFE, CONTINUED. THE SHARK BORE DOWN ON WATSON A THIRD TIME. SOME SAILORS PREPARED TO HAUL WATSON INTO THE BOAT. ANOTHER READIED HIS HARPOON. WATSON DANGLED IN THE WATER.
30
NARRATIVE.LY
Watson met Copley through mutual friends and relatives. At some point in the 1770s, he commissioned the artist to depict the 1749 ordeal.
and knife. Watch him slam it through the surface of the water. Now move ahead to 1975, when “Jaws” again
“Clearly, he saw this story as an opportunity to
shapes the popular perception of sharks, creating
do something beyond anything that he had done
the modern summer blockbuster in the process.
before,” Masur says of Copley.
Brock, the curator, notes how goofy the anima-
The painter took on the commission. He
tronic model for Jaws looks in behind-the-scenes
zeroed in on the most dramatic point of the
photos. The artistry of the shark — how it can
attack. The moment became immortal.
so convincingly move through and pop out of
It lives on in three museums and in the debates
the water, how in those moments it makes such
of the art world, but its impact goes further. The
a strong case for its own realism — creates the
shark in that painting gathers its primal force
fear. The drama of “Watson and the Shark,” in
from writings hundreds of years before, from
which Copley creates a warped offshoot of a real
the seventeenth-century A West-Indian Ballad
animal, has the same effect.
to the eighteenth-century writings of Pennant,
“He created some kind of bizarre, monstrous
who called the white shark’s mouth a “dreadful
thing,” says Masur. “It created an image of a
apparatus.”
shark in (the people’s) mind’s eye.”
When Copley painted his shark, it was a mon-
Follow Masur to the early 1990s, to the halls
ster, and as the decades went by, that feeling
of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where he
endured. Maunder, writing in the mid-1800s,
and his four-year-old son turn a corner, ind
mentioned, “no ish can swim with such velocity
themselves face-to-face with the shark that took
as the Shark, nor is any so constantly engage in
Watson’s leg, and let their mouths drop open.
that exercise: he outstrips the swiftest ships, and plays round them, without exhibiting a symptom of strong exertion or uneasy apprehension.” The mythology builds. Move forward another hundred years, to 1958, and watch Spencer Tracy ight off a shiver of sharks in the ilm adaptation of “The Old Man and the Sea,” which Burgess watched when he was young, before his four-decade career studying sharks took shape. Watch Tracy fashion a crude harpoon with a stick
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
31
Photo Courtesy of Sarah Crutchield/Unsplash
32
I Wonder What It Feels Like to be Drowned? Robert Graves
Look at my knees, That island rising from the steamy seas! The candle’s a tall lightship; my two hands Are boats and barges anchored to the sands, With mighty cliffs all round; They’re full of wine and riches from far lands.... I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?
I can make caves, By lifting up the island and huge waves And storms, and then with head and ears well under Blow bubbles with a monstrous roar like thunder, A bull-of-Bashan sound. The seas run high and the boats split asunder.... I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?
The thin soap slips And slithers like a shark under the ships. My toes are on the soap-dish—that’s the effect Of my huge storms; an iron steamer’s wrecked. The soap slides round and round; He’s biting the old sailors, I expect.... I wonder what it feels like to be drowned?
Photo courtesy Ian Burt/Flickr