DIVE HAPPY

Peter Benchley, author of Jaws and avid protector of sharks, has passed away at the age of 65

With my recent mentions of Great White Sharks in New Zealand and Australian waters, it seems appropriate to mention the passing of Peter Benchley. The American novelist wrote Jaws on a whim after hearing about a great white shark being frequently spotted off Long Island, where the book is based. (It's a bit like the Great White that's currently hanging around the coast of New Plymouth in New Zealand). It was a publishing phenomenon, optioned for the movie rights before he'd even finished the manuscript, and once Spielberg completed the film (against near disastrous odds due to the mechanical shark continually breaking down), Benchley's story became legend. (It's worth getting the 20th anniversary edition DVD of Jaws for the interviews with Spielberg and others about the near-nervous-breakdown making of the film).

Having read Jaws the novel recently, I have to say the film is actually far better - it's much tighter in its plotting and suspense than the book, which has a fairly dull adulterous subplot surrounding Brody's wife. That said, Benchley also wrote Beast, about a - surprise! - giant squid, that terrorises another coastal community in Bermuda. That was fun, and, just like Jaws, imparts quite a lot of fascinating fact about giant squid amongst the fiction.

It's well known that Peter Benchley was somewhat appalled by the demonising of sharks that his book Jaws inspired, and that he spent most of his later life as an active campaigner for marine conservation, urging people to understand sharks better and the underwater habitat. His excellent book Shark! True Stories And Lessons From The Deep is a non-fiction recollection of Benchley's own numerous scuba diving trips and encounters with sharks, manta rays and more. Certainly a must read for any diver interested in encountering these big creatures. (See my Koh Lanta:Manta Ray Paradise and Koh Tao: Chumphon Pinnacle articles for two places to see mantas and sharks in Thailand).

There are numerous obituaries for Peter Benchley on the Web - The Guardian and The New York Times provide good overviews of his career and a touching sidenote: "For their 40th wedding anniversary last year, Peter and Wendy Benchley went diving, looking for great white sharks in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego."

The Independent lets Benchley provide his own epitaph: "Nobody pretended it was great literature, but it resonated with a generation of Americans whose unprecedented affluence could not conceal lurking fears, both rational and irrational. "If I were to be elected pope or if I cured cancer, still, at my funeral, should anybody care, they'll play, 'Duh dum, duh dum'," he said. "My legacy will, no matter what, be Jaws. I hope there will be at least the acknowledgment that I spent my time working for the oceans and trying to protect them."