About 109 movies about sharks are listed on IMDB, and 96% of those portray these apex predators as overwhelmingly threatening. According to a study, these types of Hollywood movies about sharks make it harder to conserve their dwindling numbers.
Much of the impact stems from the blockbuster 1975 movie "Jaws." But other Hollywood movies about sharks, like "The Meg" and "Sharknado," also overtly presented sharks as terrifying creatures.
These movies have forever changed how society views sharks, especially great white sharks. But in reality, only 2% of shark species have attacked humans, and the odds of being killed by them in the US are more than 3.7 million to 1.
Sharks in Hollywood Movies
After over four decades since the movie "Jaws" was released and over 100 shark movies, people's fear of sharks remains. Researchers from the University of South Australia are concerned that this negative impact that shark movies have brought is adversely affecting conservation efforts of this often endangered animal, Phys.org reported.
Conservation psychology researchers from the university have evaluated how sharks are portrayed in movies and found that 96% of these films are overtly portraying these apex predators as a threat to humans.
UniSA's Dr. Briana Le Busque said that the sensationalized depictions of sharks in movies and other popular media unfairly influence the perceptions of people on sharks which sometimes end up harming conservation efforts.
She added that most of the knowledge that people have on sharks is from movies or the news, which typically presented these animals as something to be feared. Hollywood movies that overtly portray sharks as terrifying creatures with an insatiable appetite for human flesh are not true.
Similar to other animals, sharks are also at a much greater risk of harm from humans and vice versa. Their global population has rapidly declined over the years, and many shark species are on the brink of extinction. Exacerbating the fear of sharks could damage efforts of helping them and even influence many people to support harmful mitigation strategies.
"There's no doubt that the legacy of "Jaws" persists, but we must be mindful of how films portray sharks to capture movie-goers. This is an important step to debunk shark myths and build shark conservation," Dr. Le Busque concludes as quoted by the news outlet.
The researchers published their study, titled "Sharks on film: an analysis of how shark-human interactions are portrayed in films," in Human Dimensions of Wildlife.
Shark Attacks Per Year
According to the 2020 report of the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), there are 57 confirmed unprovoked cases of shark attacks worldwide last year. This number is lower than the most recent five-year average of 8 incidents annually from 2015 to 2019. This year, 13 shark attacks have been recorded, of which ten of these are unprovoked.
The ISAF said that fluctuations of shark-human interactions are common. But there is a decreasing number of annual fatalities, which could be influenced by the variability in oceanographic, socioeconomic, and meteorological conditions that affect the abundance of sharks and humans in the water.
Despite this, Daily Mail reported that only 2% of the known 548 shark species are known to attack humans. The great white sharks, bull sharks, and tiger sharks are the top three shark species responsible for the majority of the attacks.
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