Will we need a bigger boat? Martha's Vineyard awash in 'Jaws' at 50 mania

USA Today

20-06-2025

Will we need a bigger boat? Martha's Vineyard awash in 'Jaws' at 50 mania Amid a feeding frenzy of interest in the 50-year movie milestone, the island is celebrating and educating on all things sharks.
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Athlete marks 'Jaws' 50th anniversary with 60-mile swim
Swimmer Lewis Pugh circumnavigated Martha's Vineyard to mark the 50th anniversary of the movie "Jaws" and draw attention to the plight of sharks.
In the summer of 1974, A. Bowdoin Van Riper had just gotten out of school when Hollywood came to town.
Van Riper, then 11 years old, went down to the beach on Martha's Vineyard with a friend to watch the filming of what would become Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws." When a crew member called out for volunteers, the two raced into the water and pretended to panic for a scene in which two kids frighten swimmers using a cardboard fin.
'It was a very, very short brush with Hollywood, but it is still − after 50 years − cool to know that I played a very, very, very small part in helping the film get made,' Van Riper said.
Like many locals who helped create the first summer blockbuster, Van Riper is now gearing up for an elaborate, summer-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of "Jaws."
Upon its release on June 20, 1975, 'Jaws' struck fear in the hearts of beachgoers nationwide, leading to an increase in shark phobias and trophy hunting that helped decimate shark populations. Though viewers say the movie scared them away from beaches, pools and even bath tubs for a time, that fear has become an American fascination.
'Jaws' fandom has become a huge tourism draw for the island and some proprietors are expecting their biggest summer ever. As the population − and reputation − of sharks off the coast of Massachusetts has begun to rebound, many are using the 50th anniversary of "Jaws" to remind the public how important sharks are and how to stay safe as beachgoers increasingly find themselves in close proximity to the predators.
'At the time 'Jaws' came out, we virtually knew nothing about sharks and nobody knew how important of a role they play in their ecosystem,' said Megan Winton, a scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy on nearby Cape Cod. 'We're still honestly learning new things about that every day, but learning how to live with great white sharks is tough.'
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'Jaws' fans flooding Martha's Vineyard
On Martha's Vineyard − the real-life version of Spielberg's fictional Amity Island − planning for the 50th anniversary of "Jaws" has been in the works for years.
There will be screenings of the film and a documentary about its production, a live performance of the movie's famous score, and parties where fans can meet some of the cast and crew, said Erica Ashton and Alessandra Hagerty, executive and deputy directors of the Martha's Vineyard Chamber of Commerce.
Most shops and restaurants are decked out with "Jaws"-themed merchandise from custom-poured shark candles to a bloody-looking cranberry sweet treat at Murdick's Fudge. Even the local baseball team − the Sharks − will be playing this weekend.
'There's like 'Jaws' mania, pretty much,' Hagerty said.
In the peak summer months, the island can see as many as 200,000 visitors, according to the Chamber of Commerce. But with hotels fully booked and anniversary weekend events nearly all sold out, officials are expecting a surge of visitors that could be tens of thousands higher than normal, far exceeding previous events related to the film.
Michael Currid said he has already had 'exponentially more' advance bookings for his 'Jaws' walking tour than he has in the past 15 years. 'I'm confident that, at least from the 'Jaws' side, this will be my biggest season ever,' said Currid, owner of Edgartown Tour Company.
Currid leads groups on walking tours of Edgartown that mirror the path taken by one of the film's protagonists, police chief Martin Brody, played by Roy Scheider. On his full island tour, he takes visitors to filming locations farther afield such as the fishing village of Menemsha, where Brody and grizzled shark hunter Quint, portrayed by Robert Shaw, set sail.
Often, Currid pulls up clips from the movie on his iPad to show tourists just how little has changed on the island since the film was shot.
'One home may have added bay windows,' he said. 'On one street that I show, the biggest change is the color of the fire hydrant.'
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'Jaws' events urge tourists to 'respect the locals'
"Jaws" fans have already begun flocking to the Martha's Vineyard Museum to check out memorabilia and movie props such as the one-eyed head of a fisherman attacked by the shark in the film. The exhibition, which dominates the museum's entire second floor, has been five years in the making, according to Cathy Mayone, the museum's managing director.
'We've been very busy ever since Memorial Day, when we opened up the exhibit, and we are seeing a lot of people,' she said. 'Every day I walk through the museum and I talk to people that are visiting the island for the first time.'
Though much of the programming focuses on the islanders who helped make the movie, the museum will also hold a lesson on sharks for kids and a talk by ocean conservation advocate Wendy Benchley, widow of "Jaws" author Peter Benchley, Mayone said. Both the late Benchley and Spielberg have expressed regret for the impact the book and the film had on real sharks.
'Part of our exhibit about 'Jaws' is a room devoted to teaching people more about sharks as a species, and efforts to understand them, protect them,' said Van Riper, the museum's research librarian who is gearing up to deliver a three-hour deep dive on the film to a sold-out crowd. 'So we hope we can do our bit to promote that whole 'respect the locals' attitude toward them.'
Locals aren't the only ones using the anniversary to draw attention to the threats facing sharks. Lewis Pugh, a long distance swimmer from England, braved the island's chilly waters in just a pair of speedos, a swim cap and goggles in a bid to raise awareness.
Pugh embarked on a brutal 12-day swim around Martha's Vineyard not long after the first shark sighting of the season in the area. Though he didn't spot any sharks on this journey, he did feel wary in the water after breaking the unspoken rule among swimmers by talking so frequently about the animals.
'I saw ("Jaws") when I was about 12 years old. I haven't seen it again. I'm frightened of sharks. I'm normal, OK?' he said with a laugh. 'But I'm terrified of a world without sharks.'
Though more than a third of Americans say they're afraid of sharks and some attribute that fear to "Jaws" directly, Pugh said sharks are the ones in real danger. Sharks bite just a few dozen people each year, but humans kill millions of sharks worldwide.
Pugh − who celebrated finishing the swim with an ice cream on the beach before heading to a U.N. conference on oceans in France − called the killings 'an ecocide.'
'We need to, No. 1, educate ourselves about them. No. 2, we need to respect them. And then lastly, we really need to protect them.'
Shark research and conservation still has 'a long way to go'
Great white shark populations in the Atlantic may have declined by as much as 70% before they were designated as a prohibited species in most American waters in 1997, said Winton, of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.
Populations around Massachusetts began to rebound as protections increased for sharks and seals, their preferred prey, Winton said. 'What we're seeing on Cape Cod, really is, it's a huge conservation success story,' she said.
With that success comes new challenges. The animals spend about half their time hunting for seals in shallow waters offshore, and when swimmers and surfers get in their way, deadly encounters can occur, Winton said.
In the summer of 2018, one man narrowly survived after being bitten by a shark on the Cape Cod National Seashore, and another died after a shark bit him while he was boogie-boarding.
'People were scared. They wanted to do something about it, and so there were calls for lethal control measures,' Winton said.
Winton said conflicts with humans remain the biggest threat to white sharks in the waters of Massachusetts, adding that researchers have increasingly come across sharks with boat strike injuries. White sharks are still considered 'vulnerable,' one step below endangered, by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.
And though "Jaws," particularly actor Richard Dreyfuss' portrayal of oceanographer Matt Hooper, has inspired many marine biologists to study white sharks, Winton said researchers still don't have answers to basic questions about their biology, such as where they mate and give birth.
'We've come a long way since 'Jaws' in terms of shark conservation and our understanding of sharks and our appreciation for them and how important they are to the health of our oceans,' Winton said. 'But we've still got a long way to go.'