- Steven Spielberg said he regrets the harmful impact "Jaws" had on shark populations in America.
- Experts suggests the 1975 film was linked to the decimation of shark populations around the US.
"Jaws" may have made Steven Spielberg a household name, but he has some regrets about the film.
During a recent appearance on the BBC's "Desert Island Discs" radio show, the director, 75, discussed how he feels about the classic film nearly five decades after its release.
Asked how he'd feel being stranded on an island surrounded by sharks, Spielberg said: "That's one of the things I still fear, not to get eaten by a shark, but that sharks are somehow mad at me for the feeding frenzy of crazy sport fishermen which happened after 1975, which I truly, and to this day, regret."
According to the director of the Florida Program for Shark Research George Burgess, via the BBC, "thousands" of fishermen took to the east coast of the US to catch "trophy sharks" after seeing the movie, whose plot revolves around hunting down a murderous shark.
After its release in 1975, "Jaws" went on to receive critical acclaim and win several prestigious awards, including three Oscars, a Golden Globe, and a BAFTA.
But Spielberg's regrets have some merit, since the film is thought to have had a huge negative impact on public opinion of sharks.
The film, based on a novel of the same name, is set in the fictional town of Amity Island, which is terrorized by a man-eating great white shark. The cast included Roy Schneider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw.
Research done in the decades following the film's release suggests it spurred a massive population decline in species in waters around the US, the BBC reported.
Speaking to the BBC in 2015, biologist Dr. Julia Baum said that between 1986 and 2000, the Northwest Atlantic Ocean saw the numbers of an array of shark species plummet: 89% decrease in hammerhead sharks, 79% in great white sharks, and 65% in tiger sharks. Oliver Crimmen, senior fish curator at the UK's National History Museum, said he saw "a big change happen in the public and scientific perception of sharks" after the release of the novel, and Spielberg's adaptation.
Peter Benchley, author of the original book, said he wouldn't have written it had he known more about the species earlier in his life, according to The Independent.
"Knowing what I know now, I could never write that book today," Benchley, who died in 2006, said.
Benchley went on to become a shark and ocean advocate after writing "Jaws," according to the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards organization, named in his honor and cofounded with his wife Wendy Benchley.