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 flowers 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 flukes, 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.
POETRY 4
THE MALDIVE SHARK Herman Melville
PROSE 5
HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE GREAT WHITE SHARK
14 22 32
Kea Krause
ASHORE Ernest Hilbert
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GREATEST DEFENDER
Lord Alfred Douglas
FEELS LIKE TO BE DROWNED? Robert Graves
OF ‘JAWS’ BECAME THE SHARK’S
THE SHARK
I WONDER WHAT IT
HOW THE CREATOR
David Dowling
23
THE SHARK ATTACK THAT SHOOK THE 1700s John Wolper & Damien Jay
Cover Photo Courtesy Elias Levy/Flickr Title Page Photo Courtesy Lwp Kommunikáció/Flickr
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The Maldive Shark Herman Melville
About the Shark, phlegmatical one, Pale sot of the Maldive sea, The sleek little pilot-fish, 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 flank Or before his Gorgonian head; Or lurk in the port of serrated teeth In white triple tiers of glittering gates, And there find 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, fifty feet out. The shark had attacked
attack reached my inbox, it had been five 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
fin 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 office
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-
Surfing 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
the specter of the shark. Treading water in the
them and the rush of riding down their steep
deep end of a swimming pool was enough for
faces are all elements of dreams and addictions.
me to sense the shadow of a large fish emerging
But what movies and surf videos don’t show
beneath me.
is the waiting. To reach the highs, you must
Research helped me to make sense of the
spend countless hours in the water, alone with
beast that held my imagination hostage. I loved
your thoughts and the sound of harmless chops
that carcharodon carcharias was essentially a
lapping against your board while you wait for
spectacular dinosaur still roaming our seas, and
waves.
I developed a late-night habit of watching the
During these lulls, most surfers’ heads are
species on YouTube.
giddy with the prospect of glittering, curling
Then, about a year and a half ago, I discov-
crests. Mine was filled with beady black eyes and
ered a website called Ocearch. With high-octane
rows of serrated teeth. They waited for waves;
graphics and social media integration, it seemed
I waited for a two-ton force to strike me from
rather flashy for a non-profit and felt more
below at forty miles per hour and rip one of my
like a webpage for an extreme sport like moto-
dangling legs from my body.
cross. But Ocearch was the name of an oceanic
Anxiety prevented me from enjoying the
research ship outfitted with a custom-made lift
sport, and it occurred to me that my brain and
used to capture and tag great whites in order to
those belonging to real surfers were very dif-
study their migratory patterns.
ferent organs. During my five years in Oregon I
I became consumed by one of the site’s fea-
faked it as a surfer. But my fear of sharks turned
tures, the Global Shark Tracker. Dotting a satel-
fanatical. Violent images of sharks antagonizing
lite map of the world were “pings” representing
small towns from horror classics had burrowed
tagged sharks journeying the coastal shores of
their way too deeply into my mind.
the Northeast United States and South Africa.
Even after I hung up my gear, I couldn’t shake
The pings came in two colors. If a shark hadn’t
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surfaced in more then thirty days, its ping was
warmer climes in winter months — and indeed,
blue. A brighter and more urgent orange ping
most of those tagged on Ocearch do just that.
indicated the shark had made surface contact
But Mary Lee had other plans. This indepen-
anywhere between the past thirty days and
dent-minded shark poked around the Mid-Atlan-
twenty-four hours.
tic for the first part of February, and then, in an
Ocearch also names their tagged sharks and gives them online profiles that reminded me of
unprecedented move, headed north to New York. Cheeky status updates tracked her progress.
the few times I had used the popular matchmak-
“Mary Lee continues to the North while bend-
ing app Tinder. Some sharks’ profiles include a
ing to the West. Heading toward New Jersey/
thumbnail picture of their dorsal fin with the eerie
New York City. OMG is Mary Lee a Jersey Girl?”
decoration of a little antenna, like the kind you would find sticking out of the back of a Volkswa-
And eventually: “Mary Lee continues East! Is she headed to the Gulf Stream to warm up?”
gen Golf. Others have sexier shots of their angular
Status updates like these received hundreds
noses or entire bodies. Mature females are often
of likes, shares and comments. As Mary Lee’s
named after crewmembers’ mothers, while others
travels progressed, so did the interest of Ocearch
are bestowed with odd, abstract monikers, similar
followers. Facebook friends left comments
to names you might find on the hull of a boat, like
expressing their fascination with the shark, even
Success, Courage and Vindication.
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 fish, like to retreat to
the oceans. Witnessing the tagged few reassured
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.
me that the rest of the great white population was
is progress. By giving endangered animals names
likely up to the same docile business. Similar to a
and personalities that remind you of your mother,
Doppler report for fair weather, Ocearch’s Global
conservationists are able to draw compassion out
Shark Tracker made me feel in control of this par-
of otherwise indifferent people.
ticular predator, like goldfish I had won at a carnival.
But sharks aren’t people, don’t eat out at restaurants, don’t go on dates with other sharks and
Assigning personalities to animals is anything
don’t get themselves into cute compromising posi-
but a new phenomenon. Disney has been at it for
tions like kittens in coffee cups. My relationship to
years; from the Bambi era to “March of the Pen-
the Ocearch sharks wasn’t one of friendship, but I
guins,” the studio has given charming traits to
was warming to them. And meanwhile, Mary Lee’s
mammals and sea creatures alike in order to tell
Facebook friends aren’t afraid of her; they just
stories of romance, courage and sacrifice. In the
want her to be happy. “I think she is just trying to
original trailer for “Bambi,” a voiceover proclaims,
survive and find something to eat!” wrote one fan.
“Bambi! The story of a deer who learns love means
“Bless her heart out there in the big ole ocean…”
many things to many people” — even though all the
Once, as the sun was setting out over the Pacific,
“people” in the movie are skunks, rabbits and owls.
I sat on my board nervously waiting for a wave
By anthropomorphizing great whites on social
and a cute harbor seal popped up next to me. It
media, Ocearch is applying this formula to a
had long black eyelashes and blinked at me as we
predator, which is a marketable way to promote
both floated side by side in the ocean. Flaring in
shark research, but could also potentially change
and out, its nostrils created a cloud of condensa-
our relationship to the fish. That we might care
tion around its bald head. I looked it straight in
about a great white’s well-being, even if it’s about
its face and realized that I was within five feet of
their emotional health rather than something real,
actual shark bait. We were a two-course meal.
like their dwindling population (they are listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the WWF extinction risk list)
“Get away from me!” I screamed. Fear had distorted my voice into a pitch I didn’t recognize.
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AFTER A BIG MEAL, A GREAT WHITE SHARK CAN LAST UP TO THREE MONTHS BEFORE NEEDING TO EAT AGAIN. “Get out of here!” I yelled again, throwing scoops
ing to terrorize humans, as depicted in movies
of water at its face. The seal disappeared beneath
like “Jaws” and “Deep Blue Sea.”
the water and playfully reappeared on the other
But while movies use fear to sell tickets, TV
side of my board. One of us is not getting eaten, I
shows use fear to sell science, or their version
thought to myself, swinging around on to my belly
of it. The Discovery Channel spends seven days
and paddling for my life back to shore.
each summer dedicating a full slate of program-
As surfers, we nicknamed dusk “dinner time,”
ming to the species called Shark Week. The
because this was supposedly when sharks were
popular series first 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 surfing 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 five 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 terror-
— anomalies, misunderstandings. The idea of
ized by sharks.
sharks potentially mistaking humans for seals is
One year, “MythBusters,” a popular Discov-
ruinous to their reputation, and enough to scare
ery Channel series dedicated to crafting scien-
me right out of the water.
tific experiments that test the validity of rumors
The relatable narratives Ocearch gives their
and old wives tales, did their own Shark Week
tagged sharks worked to assuage my fears.
episode. Here was an opportunity to allay some
Sharks who were just looking to get by struck me
of the negative shark mythology! Instead, the
as substantially less murderous than sharks look-
show worked on figuring out if sharks were more
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
interested in eating humans who are thrashing
which documented their tagging efforts. The
or humans who play dead. In the experiment,
show depicted a crew aboard a large boat that
the show’s hosts donned mesh body suits and
trolled the waters off the coast of South Africa
jumped into water swarming with sharks, then
in search of great whites. Scientists doing the
inserted themselves into their path, impressing
tagging relied on several sport fisherman to land
upon viewers that their courage was all for the
the sharks aboard Ocearch’s lift. Drama perme-
sake of a little information.
ated the show, with shouts of bawdy encourage-
While the aim of these shows is to participate
ment as fishermen 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 fish 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 scientif-
voked human attacks,” but doesn’t clarify how
ic mission, the show’s occasional suggestion of
rare an attack actually is. In another, the narra-
blood sport eclipsed the fact that the tagging and
tor tells the viewer to “sit back, relax and try not
contact with the sharks was unprecedented and
get eaten.” Last year Shark Week debuted with a
could lead to greater understanding of the spe-
“documentary” about the Megalodon, a massive
cies as a whole.
but extinct shark species. The special dramatized
One Shark Week episode called “Ultimate Air
the shark’s violent capabilities, then misled view-
Jaws” did prove to me that great whites don’t
ers to believe that perhaps the shark is still out
need to be provoked or treated like fuzzy animals
there, lurking in oceans’ depths.
in order for them to be seen as truly astounding
Even the Ocearch crew briefly had a show on the History Channel called “Shark Wranglers,”
creatures. In the episode, a photographer uses a new
A GREAT WHITE SHARK CAN SWIM 35 MILES PER HOUR AND COVER OVER 6,000 MILES IN JUST UNDER 100 DAYS.
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SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE THAT THERE MAY BE FEWER THAN 10,000 GREAT WHITE SHARKS LEFT IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. camera called the Phantom to capture great
In my tent at night, I dreamed of clouds of red
whites breaching off the coast of South Africa.
water, my fears flirting and mingling with obses-
The camera is one of Hollywood’s fastest, used
sion. Mornings brought a strange reassurance: If
to film scenes intended to be shown in extreme
a shark ever mistook me for prey, at least I would
slow motion. It takes pictures at 1,000 frames
finally get to know what one felt like. At least I
per second and can slow down a breech that only
could finally run my fingers along its sandpaper
lasts for an instant, taking a full minute to let it
skin, feel its warm breath emanating from that
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 to
face like the periscope of a submarine. Next
rule an entire food chain was on dramatic display.
to emerge from the ocean are its stony eyes,
For once a show wasn’t pretending a shark could be
rolled back protectively in their sockets. Soon
funny, happy, mad or maniacal, just like us. Instead
the entire upper body of the shark is out of the
it was shown relying on instinct to hunt prey —
water and rotating through the sky. A sharp ridge
a magnificent and complex process that humans
runs down the length of the shark’s back, giving
haven’t engaged in for thousands of years. Televi-
it a steely, mechanized feel, like a missile. Its
sion makes it seem like sharks are just another ele-
gills flap rhythmically, pushing out cascades of
ment in our universe, but upon the ocean, we tread
white, foamy water. Finally its tail whips out of
and backstroke as mere specks in theirs.
the ocean and the entire great white is airborne,
Once, during a panicked paddle back to shore
particles of water bursting from its wetsuit-like
after allowing my imagination to spook me out
flesh, teeth tearing into the limp seal decoy, an
of the water, I briefly realized the only trait we
amazing animal in mid-air.
have in common with sharks and should associ-
When I was in Oregon, after sun-soaked days of surfing I often camped along the Pacific coast.
ate with them is survival. Now knowing sharks much better, I have devel-
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
oped a certainty about the animal: Their existence and ours are miracles of the same caliber. These days, I long to get back into the water.
13
see what had grazed me. Chances are it was my imagination. On days like that, when I could see my legs disappearing
Years ago, on a fall day after classes, I drove
at the knee on both sides of my board, I had a
out to the Oregon coast for a sunset surf session.
hard time staying sane, even while out on the
The grey sky made for poor visibility in the water,
water. But if it wasn’t all in my head, if it actu-
and the normally emerald Pacific had darkened
ally was the probing brush of a great white shark,
to solid black by that evening. As I sat waiting for
I’d like to think it was only trying to survive out
a wave, I felt something brush against my leg.
there in that big ocean.
With lightning speed, I was on my stomach with my legs out of the water, paddling feverishly to the beach. Too scared to look back, I never did
Photo Courtesy Nick Diamantidis/Unsplash
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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 flies cloud the fishy sunset, and land. One, sated, is slapped to a smear beneath A child’s quick hand and then flicked from his wrist. Compass and munitions are sunk with skulls In wrecks beneath old storms, glass angels And hourglasses, flint 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 floats— Flail and wild eye, flecked 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 film 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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THESE WERE NO LONGER SAVAGE LEVIATHANS AND MAN-EATING MONSTERS, BUT MUTILATED VICTIMS.
cious appetite for blood-drenched terror at
A stroll along the pier in Montauk fifty years
sea. But Benchley, the man who reinvented the
ago was like visiting a big-game fishing museum.
great white shark as the nemesis of humanity —
Shark fins, heads and extracted jaws were
a kind of Moby Dick of the modern era — would
mounted on the pier railings of Montauk harbor;
come to completely disavow this take on sharks.
full carcasses hung for days after being caught,
Like Dr. Frankenstein, Benchley could not
the fishermen and townspeople posing beside
escape the carnage in the wake of his creation,
their prizes. Harpoons, lances and knives of all
and for the latter part of his career committed
varieties festooned the wharf; photos lovingly
himself to an all-out assault on shark killing
chronicling the exploits of the bounty hunters
through the conservation movement, until his
adorned shops and restaurants.
death in 2006 of pulmonary fibrosis at the age of sixty-five.
Montauk was the shark fishing capital of the world, and nobody hauled in more sharks than
“Peter was connected to the ocean all the way
Frank Mundus. While researching his book —
from when he was a young child,” his widow
and in TV appearances after “Jaws” was released
Wendy Benchley recalled in a recent interview.
— Benchley found his way onto the Cricket II,
Wendy, who has forged her own career in envi-
Mundus’s big-game fishing boat. Many assume
ronmental politics and policy, says Peter grew up
that Mundus’s cocky swagger and defiance — he
in a literary family and was “always a sensitive
hated using the two-way radio — was the source
human being.”
of Benchley’s character, the bounty hunter Quint.
In 1964, news of a 4,550-pound great white
However, Wendy Benchley insists that “Quint
shark caught off the coastal community of Mon-
was more nuanced…Frank was a very eccentric
tauk on Long Island in New York initially ignited
individual”— a man with a massive ego many
Benchley’s imagination. A blue-blooded New
said was out of control, on his quest to kill as
Englander raised in the summers on Nantucket,
many sharks as he could to get press attention.
the Exeter alum had been traveling the world since graduating from Harvard in 1961.
Wendy says her husband based Quint on complex figures with subtler views of sharks, like
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
17
THE FILM HAD AN ORIGINAL BUDGET SET AT $3.5 MILLION. IT SWELLED TO $9 MILLION BY THE END OF PRODUCTION. ITS BOX OFFICE TOTAL CURRENTLY STANDS AT $471 MILLION. Peter and Wendy Benchley on an ocean dive/Narrative.ly
Rodney Fox, a South African filmmaker and con-
“Jaws” had the opposite effect on the author. To
servationist who was bitten by a great white, sur-
him, they were nothing short of transcendent.
vived, and went on to pioneer cage diving.
The dive was just one of his many firsthand
Benchley’s many TV spots from the ’70s are
encounters with sharks. Even before “Jaws,”
telling, particularly his cage dives. In one, he’s
through his work with National Geographic,
captured wide-eyed and exhilarated, sitting
Benchley made a name for himself in the media
breathless on the edge of the diving boat, fresh
as an oceanic expert. Producers of shows like
from a close encounter with a great white shark.
“American Outdoorsman” found his earnest
Gasping with equal parts ecstasy and terror from
manner, articulate Ivy-league bearing and movie
going face-to-face with the creature in the pro-
star good looks perfect for the camera. They also
tective cage beneath the surface, Benchley looks
loved his penchant for coming face-to-face with
as if he has just seen something miraculous.
sharks, especially enormous ones.
The dreaded “doll’s eyes” that haunt Benchley’s own Ahab-esque character of Quint in
But on a dive during the early 1980s in what seemed an oceanic paradise, “the horrors of the
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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.’
half-known life,” as Melville would have it,
process as captured in the footage accompanying
came a-haunting. While exploring the deep
Benchley’s WildAid interview is not for the feint
world of a nature preserve off Costa Rica called
of heart. Fishermen seize the animals by harpoon
Cocos Island, Benchley’s dance with the “momen-
or large calipers and haul them on deck, where
tary spasm of macho shark hunting,” as he later
they mercilessly slash side and dorsal fins in a
called it, abruptly changed.
pool of crimson. The animal shows its agony in
Submerged deep beneath the surface, he witnessed a scene that would forever change his life.
its contortions, jerking and struggling with each slash of the knife.
After hours of diving in what seemed an Eden-
Perhaps most brutal is the tossing of the
esque marine sanctuary, the ocean floor no longer
animal back into the sea still very much alive,
was full of the boyhood wonder of his Nantucket
left to float downward in a painful spasm of slow
imagination. In a WildAid interview, he testified
torturous death.
to seeing “the bodies of corpses of finned sharks
As Paul McCartney once said, “If slaughter-
littering the bottom of the sea,” calling it “one of
houses had glass walls, we’d all be vegetarians.”
the most horrifying sights I have ever seen.” These
The Cocos Island dive was Benchley’s glass wall
were no longer savage leviathans and man-eating
moment.
monsters, but mutilated victims.
Wendy Benchley remembers the profound
A result of a huge global market for shark fin
impact the Cocos Island dive had on her husband.
soup — a popular Chinese delicacy — the finning
“I do remember when he came back,” she recalls.
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
“That is certainly an event he saw firsthand that
waters like red smoke. The horror of his imagina-
really shook him. It’s one thing to know the sta-
tion became all too real, and turned him into a
tistics, and another to see it firsthand.”
conservation activist.
Carnage — the conquering of the giant 4,550-
“The shark in an updated version could not
pound savage predator — drew Benchley to
be the villain,” Benchley wrote in “Oceans in
sharks. Now carnage, delivered by bounty hunt-
Peril,” a piece for the 1995 Smithsonian Insti-
ers and fin commerce, drew him once again.
tution traveling exhibit titled Ocean Planet. He
Benchley’s dives after his dark epiphany at
added that if he were to do it all over again, the
Cocos Island increasingly revealed the dead and
shark “would have to be written as the victim, for
dying creatures at the bottom of the sea, their
worldwide, sharks are much more the oppressed
dorsal fins hacked off, blood billowing into the
than the oppressors.”
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NARRATIVE.LY
“Peter’s rendition of the great white shark as
Benchley shot back in the same article: “Spiel-
a terrifying monster inadvertently tapped into
berg needs to work on character. He knows,
people’s deepest fears,” Wendy writes on her web-
flatly, zero.”
site. The Cocos Island dive would tap into his own
Spielberg was a twenty-seven-year-old wun-
deepest fear that his novel may have contributed
derkind in one of his first major productions.
to the underwater mutilation he witnessed.
This would be the movie that thrust him to fame.
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.
finding himself immediately immersed. He con-
Details from the filming 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 reflects 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 film magazine interview July of 1974.
interesting.” Rogers confessed that “the shark was easily my favorite character, and one suspects Benchley’s also.” Benchley’s repertoire drew heavily from literary influences like Melville, while Spielberg was “B-movie literate. When he must make decisions about the small ways people behave, he reaches for movie clichés of the forties and fifties,” Benchley said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times during the summer of filming. The same could be said about his flattening out of Benchley’s shark into a stock villain, which the director neatly folded into the role a
Peter diving in Bermuda/Narrative.ly
B-movie summer monster.
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
“Knowing what I know now,” Benchley later
ters from people saying, ‘You made me fasci-
confessed, “I could never write that book today,”
nated with the ocean,’” says Wendy Benchley.
because “sharks don’t target human beings and
This side of “Jaws’” impact has been muted, she
they certainly don’t hold grudges,” he told the
says, mainly because “the press has always gone
London Daily Express in 2006.
with the ‘oh, ‘Jaws’ was so fearful’ perspective,”
Louie Psihoyos, director of “The Cove,” the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary
even though “it really stimulated an interest in the ocean.”
about dolphin slaughter, formerly worked with
According to National Geographic, swimmers
Benchley atNational Geographic and is now
have a one in 3.7 million chance of being killed
wrapping up filming 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 fifty-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 fin 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 fins for
the one that endures. That’s why advocating the
shark fin 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 film 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 fictional
— 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 let-
“Jaws” author into an advocate.
21
22
NARRATIVE.LY
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 fish. 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 first. It
moved to the boat’s bow. Watson reappeared
was swimming about 200 yards from the shore,
after another two minutes, his foot gone below
where the boat was anchored, and it was bearing
the ankle, blood streaming into the water. The
down on a fourteen-year-old boy.
shark wasn’t far behind, moving in for a third
There wasn’t enough time to warn Brook
time, twisting through the water, opening its
Watson. The shark bit into his calf and dragged
mouth wide. On the boat, the sailor raised his
him underwater. The sailors paddled out to the
harpoon.
spot where it had happened, hoping Watson would break the surface. He didn’t. It took two
The shark went in for the kill. The sailor plunged the spear into the water.
minutes for them to spot his body 100 yards
That moment, suspended in time, is immortal.
away, and they rushed toward him, but the shark
That true story was told in a letter, which was
took him again before they arrived. One of the sailors grabbed a harpoon and
printed by the Morning Chronicle and London Advertiser nearly thirty years after the attack,
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
25
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. which took place in 1749. Watson, by then a
largely to prove himself in the thriving British art
successful merchant, likely sent it himself. The
world. He hoped that “Watson and the Shark”
fateful moment was also recreated in oil on
— a significant deviation from the portraiture he
canvas, six by seven-and-a-half feet, and pre-
was known for — would punch his ticket to the
miered to raves at London’s prestigious Royal
top tier of artists, says Charles Brock, the asso-
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 sufficiently 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 fish 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 five years; “Watson and the Shark” announced his arrival.
Reflection,” 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, an American painter who had moved to London
the painting for The New England Quarterly. Masur, who does not have a background in art,
26
NARRATIVE.LY
Walter Hough- Synoptic series of objects in the United States National Museum illustrating the history of inventions Smithsonian Institution/ Wikimedia Commons
was inspired to research the piece after a trip
splayed in the water like a classical figure, is a
to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where both
nod to Copley’s reverence for artistic history, and
he and his young son saw it on display and were
perhaps points to the idea of Christian resur-
blown away by its enormity.
rection. They’ve noted the city of Havana in the
Discussion of the painting hasn’t ceased. The late medical historian Gordon Bendersky called
background, which Copley likely based on existing illustrations.
the piece “the original ‘Jaws’ attack” centuries
They’ve discussed how the work was a water-
after its debut. Art historians continue to revisit
shed moment for the genre of history painting,
the painting’s complicated mesh of techniques
which had previously stuck to only the most far-
and ideas, debating Copley’s techniques and
ranging historical or mythological moments, and
intentions — why, for instance, was a black sailor
now had dipped into, as Nikolaus Pevsner wrote
placed in the center of the painting, completing
in his In The Zenith of European Power, 1830-
a triangle with Watson and the shark? Was it a
1870, “sensational contemporary reportage.”
statement on slavery? They’ve
mentioned
And they’ve talked about the shark, because that
Watson’s
body,
Copley, a Bostonian who left for London on the
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
eve of the American Revolution, had likely never seen one. So it became a monster. The painting presents a bizarre version of the animal, its body twisting
In 1776, around the time Watson commissioned Copley to dramatize his close call, a naturalist named Thomas Pennant wrote this about the white shark, in hisBritish Zoology:
impossibly, arching toward Watson, an “aberra-
“They are the dread of sailors in all hot cli-
tion of reality, but effective as artistic expres-
mates, where they constantly attend the ships
sion.”
in expectation of what may drop overboard; a
That’s according to George Burgess, director
man that has that misfortune perishes without
of the Florida Program for Shark Research. He
redemption: they have been seen to dart at him,
uses the painting in lectures to illustrate the per-
like gudgeons to a worm.”
ception of the animal over time.
He continued: “Swimmers often perish by
That perception — of a monster, a killing
them; sometimes they lose an arm or leg, and
machine — hasn’t really changed. In the mid-
sometimes are bit quite asunder, serving but for
1600s, there was A West-Indian Ballad, a poem
two morsels for this ravenous animal.”
purportedly based on a real event. In it, an impa-
In 1852, Samuel Maunder wrote that the
tient sailor jumps off his moored boat and begins
white shark’s mouth is “sufficiently wide to
swimming to his love, who is waiting for him on
enable it to receive the thigh, or even the body
the shore.
of a man,” and is “killed by harpooning, which,
It’s a sweet sort of suspense, until, from nowhere:
owing to (its) strength, is often a long and difficult operation.”
“Then through the white surf did she haste/
The shark in “Watson and the Shark” is more
To clasp her lovely swain/ When, ah! a shark
frightening, even — while Copley’s portrayal is
bit through his waist/ His heart’s blood dy’d
in line with the animal’s treatment in the popular
the main!/ He shriek’d! his half sprang from the
culture of hundreds of years ago, he also misses
wave/ Streaming with purple gore/ And soon
just enough points of shark anatomy to turn it
he found a living grave/ And ah! was seen no
into a sea monster.
more.”
27
For instance, Burgess says, the underside of
THE BIGGEST GREAT WHITE SHARK WAS CAUGHT IN 1993 OFF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND. IT WAS A WHOPPING 20 FEET LONG.
28
NARRATIVE.LY
Artificial Right Leg Science Museum, London/Wikimedia Commons
the shark’s head is drawn faithfully, but its
Copley painted three versions of “Watson and
snout is too long. Its head arches at an unnatural
the Shark.” One hangs at the Detroit Institute
angle. Historians agree that Watson was likely
of Arts. Another is on display at the Museum of
attacked by a tiger shark, which was common in
Fine Arts, Boston. The original version is at the
Havana Harbor. But the painting doesn’t neces-
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in a
sarily depict a tiger shark. According to Burgess,
small octagonal room dedicated to Copley. Three
the painting renders something closer to a requi-
of the eight walls are doorways; paintings hang
em shark, or a “generic shark.”
on the other five. Four of those are Copley’s por-
A study Copley completed to prepare for painting “Watson and the Shark.” Nothing is perfect. For all the master artists
traits, smaller canvases with men and women standing center frame, leaning over a chair or propped up against a pillar.
to whom Copley pays tribute inWatson and the
“Watson and the Shark,” large and imposing,
Shark, the part he gets wrong is the shark, and
dominates the room. Visitors will stand in front
that imbues the work with something unknow-
of it, and a docent, who always seems to linger in
able, turning a dramatic event into something
Copley’s room, will engage them. He’ll tell them
abjectly horrifying.
that this event actually happened, that the boy
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
was truly attacked by a shark. Then, after
below the knee. In the eighteenth and nineteenth
they’ve surrendered themselves to the moment,
centuries, the chances of dying from an amputa-
he’ll tell them that everything else in that room
tion ranged from fifty to 100 percent, Bendersky
seems pretty tame by comparison.
wrote.
The moment, in real life, continued. The shark bore down on Watson a third time. Some sailors
The surgeon made the cut. Watson’s life hung in the balance.
prepared to haul Watson into the boat. Another
According to Bendersky, the combination of the
readied his harpoon. Watson dangled in the water.
shark bites, the near-drowning and the attendant
The shark wouldn’t get a third bite — the har-
risks of amputation and post-op infection would
poon drove it away. The boy was brought onto
have put Watson’s chances of dying at ninety-nine
the boat.
percent or greater.
By now, Watson was bleeding profusely.
He made a full recovery in three months.
His right foot was lost. The shark had chewed
The event defined the English-born Watson’s
through his tibial arteries, and had taken him
life. Before the attack, he had been orphaned
underwater twice, dragging him hundreds of
and sent to Boston, where he lived with a rela-
yards each time, as Bendersky wrote in his 2002
tive named Levens, according to the National
paper, published in Perspectives in Biology and
Gallery’s catalogue, American Paintings of the
Medicine. The shark had nearly drowned the
Eighteenth Century. Levens was a merchant;
fourteen-year-old. The sailors on the boat, Bend-
Watson tagged along, and in 1749 found himself
ersky wrote, likely wouldn’t have been familiar
swimming in Havana Harbor while Levens’s ship
with how to use a tourniquet, so Watson would
was docked.
have kept bleeding.
29
After the attack, Watson was fitted with a
Surgery could not be done at sea, so the boat
wooden leg and learned to use it. He became a
set course for land, a few hundred yards away.
merchant and eventually moved back to England
Watson’s wound, severe already, had spent
for his career. As the tensions between the British
minutes mingling with salt water. On land,
colonies and England grew, Watson combined his
a surgeon decided to amputate Watson’s leg
work with government business. His leg became
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
ammunition for some snide writings: John
The mythology builds. Move forward anoth-
Wilkes, a political adversary, once wrote, “Modest
er hundred years, to 1958, and watch Spencer
Watson on his wooden leg / That leg on which
Tracy fight off a shiver of sharks in the film
such wondrous art is shown / It almost seems to
adaptation of “The Old Man and the Sea,” which
serve him as his own.” When Watson became a
Burgess watched when he was young, before his
baronet in 1803, he included in his coat of arms a
four-decade career studying sharks took shape.
foot severed at the ankle.
Watch Tracy fashion a crude harpoon with a stick
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, find
mentioned, “no fish 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.”
ISSUE ONE: SHARK TALES
31
Photo Courtesy of Sarah Crutchfield/Unsplash
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NARRATIVE.LY
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
narrative.ly
SHARK TALES volume one 路 issue one 路 june 2015