Well, I mean, yeah, we often talk about art imitating life, but in some respects I think it's important when we analyze these sort of movies fifty years on to recognize the real impact that art can have on life, and in this case, how a blockbuster film about a killer great white shark, as fictitious as it looked, could inform opinions and perspectives on these incredible sea creatures and of course the way that we treat them now. I wanted
to turn for this discussion to an extraordinary Australian. His name is Rodney Fox. He's a filmmaker, conservationist and shark expert. He was working alongside the team in Hollywood as well as off the coast of South Australia back in seventy five when the movie was released, and he's with me on the line. Rodney, thank you for your time, much appreciated.
Yes, fine, Michael, it's quite an event to think it's fifty years ago since everybody raced out of the water and had wanted to kill sharks.
Well, I suppose we can almost sum it all up in our first question, and that is that despite the fear that came as a result of this movie was incredibly well put together movie.
Spielberg did his magic.
But despite that, as you've said, over the years, it created a curiosity in these creatures, which in turn has ironically led to conservation efforts.
It's amazing, really. We're still running our Great White Shark expeditions regularly off the South Australian coast and we had four scientists out doing a film recently and they said they were all inspired by the sharks, by the Jaws movie. And you would be unbelievably surprised how many people have said told us over the years how it's got them interested in sharts and one of them to learn more. There's been so many articles and magazines, and we've actually
worked on over eighty different movies. A documentary is over the year from all different countries, and they've all been so very interested and a lot of all of them can nearly quote scenes from the Jaws movies.
Mind, the damn Gewes movie did pay a few of your bills. So let's go.
Back over the Yes. I ended up with a job as a crusty old salt at Universal Studios, Florida and had to go around and tell stories on radio and television and stuff. But the interesting thing I went on that Jaws ride. I was.
In the un studios, Yeah, Universal Studios, and I really was interested in why people would stand for an hour and a half and wait to go on the ride.
And I ended up by coming up with just a few words. It's the tingering excitement of fear that people get to go on those rides and things that they're really interested in. But what really worries me is that people say, you know, I have never been in the water since I saw the film Jaws. And one guy even said to me, I haven't even had a bus since I've actually been in that since I've seen the
film Jaws. But if people don't can't work out fiction from fact, and imagine all those other horrible movies that are out there that they they're learning from and they think that's what's normal. That's really quite amazing. How yes, movies.
Well that's a very valid point.
And of course they'd never get in a taxi, they'd never get in a bus, they never do anything if they base their life off movies. To take me back fifty or so years to when you know the Spielberg too, and he was sort of starting out really he wasn't the big superstar that he is now Steven Spielberg. But I mean you, and I think Valerie Taylor and Ron another they sort of tapped on the shoulder and said, right, well, we need a bit of expertise here, fellas well.
I was very excited. Ten years before that I'd made the first underwater cage. I was badly attacked by great white of course, and I wanted to learn more about them, to see if it was safe to go back in the water. So I invented the shark diving cage, and we made the first films right with Ron Taylor as the cameraman and he as the expedition the organizer and leader. And that film went around the world and it was amazing how people would just ring up and ask us
if we could organize an expedition. And so that's how Rodney Fox Shark Expedition started because people just kept contacting us, and for twenty years we were the only really place in the world where you could film great white sharks, and it became quite a And of course the Jaws movies was an inspiration to anybody who was a bit interested and they wanted to go and see them face to face themselves, and it's our expeditions really have been running for sixty years.
Now, all off the air Peninsula.
That shark attack, though, was one hell of an attack that you suffered, and I mean, I think you would say you were lucky to be alive after it. It's been recorded as one of the worst ever shark attacks where someone's pulled through.
I can't believe how I always thought in the back of my mind that I've been left here to do something on this earth, because nobody would you know I could survive all that those darn wounds, and of course they took them on the operating table and they went around the world many times. And I'm still been sending off photographs of the scars, you know, and whereas I don't show them anymore because I'm they're a bit fat and ugly. It was amazing, and I often thought I'd
been lefty to do something. And I look back over my whole life and we really all just worked with sharks, sharks and got people to try and understand them, and those sharks. With over four hundred varieties of sharks in our oceans, we've really, you know, with the great white of course, is the pinnacle one, but there were so many other problems in our oceans with the overfishing and
plastics and pollution. Now that been a bit instrumental in helping all those because so many people now are researching and looking at sharks. We had these four sigentists out on our boat during a film the other day and we died with them with great white sharks from South Africa and America, and they were really quite interested. And they also knew half the words of the Jaws movie.
It seems to be the basis of the lexicon, doesn't it. Nineteen ninety nine was an important year in this whole story for Australia though, because that's when the federal government declared the great white vulnerable to extinction. And when that happens, you know, things happen, Things change from a legislative point
of view. When you think about the movie came out on this day in nineteen seventy five, and then it took the better part of twenty four years before the federal government here is that actually, you know, if we actually scientifically look at the numbers, these things are under pressure. Just give us a sense, if you could ron if the Great whites were hunted to extinction because everyone feared them. Would what would the ocean ecosystem look like?
Well, it's basically that they apply pressure to any schools of fish that get too large that we eat all the food that they eat, or the dolphins or the seals. They actually are very good at locating the sick and the slow ones because they're easy to catch, the dolphins, the seals, the whales, and so they keep our oceans clean. And so they're called a major predator in our sea for sea life farm and we really need them in our oceans, and just to wipe out something from fear
is not just the thing to do. We've got to learn to live with them and not just kill them from fear.
Well, what about those that go into the water, their surfers or their ocean swimmers or whatever. What can they do to as best as possible not be attractive to sharks? Shark's drawn to us? Or I mean, what's the story with the relationship.
I made my living as an abalony diver in the same order as we're filming all these great white sharks for sixteen years, and I used to use the analogy that sharks only eight to ten sort of kill eight to ten people in the whole world per year. They
don't like abalony, and generally speaking, there's a reason. And a lot of the surfers that get bidden, of course, are in the same area where the sharks like to live, on the reefs where the seas break, and that's where the fish live, and so at surfer on the surface of his legs over the side looks like a dolphin or a seal. That could be a damage or cook. You know, a surfing is not really a good place
to go. And a lot of our southern headlands and coastlines because that's where the great white sharks hang out.
That makes sense.
I guess wherehere's sort of swimming in their supermarket, as it were.
Well, that's right, it's their world out there, and we've got to learn to live with them and not just kill them from fear. And over the years, the Finders University and a lot of people and we on our boat have been trying to make available to anybody who's got a great shark repellent. And you know, there's been fifteen or twenty different times, and there's an electronic shark repellent now that you wear that sends out an electrical
field that keeps sharks they reckon. It's very, very good, and the results have been by the Frienders University has shown that they actually are keep sharks away.
Just finally, Rodney, because I've soaked up a lot of your precious time, but it is fascinating speaking with you. Just had a text come in from someone who was listening as we speak, and it's from Jeffy says, my mate and I were on a surfing trip up Foster Away in nineteen seventy five and we saw the movie Jaws for the first time at the local cinema. We didn't surf for the rest of the holiday. Now, I
mean that was stock standard. But having overcome that extraordinary attack, and I've seen the photos of what the shark did to you, I mean you were a mess. How did you overcome what I think would be completely acceptable as a natural fear of these creatures, to not just go back in the water, but to dedicate your life to their preservation and the study of them.
When I was in hospital, they and after about a week I was allowed visard this but they allowed forty
visitors to come instead of two the normal two. The doctors thought that if they showed that I was really loved and I had something that lived for, i'd fight hard and to fight off any problems that I had, And so I noticed at that time, but the word shark was really a feared and horrible thing, like death and hell and the devil up there, you know, the sort of you know they're there and they might affect you in time, and the fear of not seeing them in the water by standing on the beach was really
quite a difficult thing because you didn't know there was a shark within a few meters or miles away from you. And as an avaloni, as a diver snorkler in the early days when I was attacked, I knew that when you had the mask on and you go into nice clear water, you could see there were those sharks there. And I badly wanted to get back diving again. It was a fabulous sport where you not only saw all these incredible, beautiful scenes, but you got healthy and well
at the same time. And I certainly wanted to dispel the myths that people had that you just had to kill them for the safe of fear.
Well, you've done that. It's been an extraordinary right of yours. Wonderful to speak with you, Rodney. I've really enjoyed the opportunity. Thank you for your time.
Yes, thank you for calling all the best.
Bye, bye, Rodney Fox. As I said, instrumental in the Sharks.
Scenes in Jewels and Jewels came out on this day in nineteen seventy five.
You might have seen it in the early days. You can