Shark fin hoax echoes scene from JAWS
Fake great white shark fin prank is similar to famous cardboard fin scene in shark film classic, JAWS (1975).
A group of school children on a sea safari in Torquay in Devon in the UK got the temporary fright of their lives when they thought they'd come across a great white shark having spotted its huge dorsal fin in the water, but it turns out it was an elaborate hoax.
Some-fin fishy. Image credit: Rob Hughes/ DevonSeaSafari/ BNPS
But, to paraphrase Matt Hooper, this was not a hoax accident as the item had been deliberately put there by someone. The fin has caused quite the stir, especially following news that the south west could be home to great white sharks, according to Ocearch who are heading to Cornwall next summer to seek proof.
Not this time though, as the fake fin had been carved from hardened insulation foam, which had then been painted dark grey (presumably they didn’t knock the paint brushes over like Chief Brody did) before it was attached to a frame in the water and placed about 300 metres off the beach for its full effect.
It may not have been a shark, but the prank is very reminiscent of the scene in Steven Spielberg’s JAWS where two boys cause panic on a packed Amity Island beach before it is discovered it is just two kids with a cardboard fin.
That scene took place on July 4th in the film, and this is exactly the same date this fake fin scene played out. Coincidence or planned Carcharodon Carcharias chaos for that date? Could this UK version of the ‘Amity Prankster’ be a JAWS fan?
One of those child actors in from JAWS is Jonathan Searle, then aged just 9, who actually ended up becoming the real life Chief Brody and is now the chief of police for Oaks Bluff, part of Martha’s Vineyard where the shark film classic was shot in 1974.
Photo credit: Jonathan Searle - by Jeanna Shepard for Vineyard Gazette
Jonathan, and his brother Steven, played the two Amity pranksters with the fake cardboard fin that initially caused the mass panic on the beach ahead of the estuary attack and our first proper glimpse of the great white shark.
The boys were lucky to not get their heads shot off, and although their scene was short, like everyone else who appeared they have become Jaws icons.
Unlike Chief Brody, he is a native islander and has been a proud long-serving Edgartown police sergeant since 1986, where he has risen through the ranks.
Unbelievably, that career has also seen the former Jaws film hoaxer stop a shark hoaxer on a Martha's Vineyard beach some 33 years after Jaws was released.
The story was even recounted in the Vineyard Gazette in 2008, and saw Searle bust a man who was going round falsely trying to cause panic on the beach by telling people that he had seen a pair of great white sharks from a boat he hadn't even been on.
And here is that very cardboard fin scene from JAWS. Everyone relax, including the audience. Except this time, the great white shark really is on the move into the pond, which is exactly where Brody has sent his son Michael and his boat, directly into the path of the shark and the still nightmare inducing estuary victim scene.
Although Jonathan and his brother’s scene is short, it is a great misdirection from them (and Steven Spielberg) that gives us the memorable beach panic scene and also segways into one of the scariest moments – and best realised shark shots – in all of the JAWS series. And for many, this is where we really get a good look at the shark for the first time.
That fake shark fin scene also ended up in The Daily Jaws fan remake – which we called the JAWS WeMake – back in 2020, which was JAWS remade by over 100 fans across the world under lockdown conditions during Covid.
Here is that Jonathan Searle scene in JAWS, WeMake-style from Jackey Deschamps and her family from Buffalo, New York.
Jackey roped in her husband, Jeremy, and children Joseph, then aged 16, Collin, then aged 14, and Cameron, then aged 10, as actors. Jackey's brother, Scott Balzer was on their scenes filming and editing duties.
And they all did an amazingly accurate job, recreating each moment from that scene down to every detail, which was then matched to the original audio. It still looks brilliant, with Jackey even being dubbed the “oh my, god lady” for a short while on social media.
With only a fake fin and no great white sharks in UK waters confirmed, the nearest Torquay has come to JAWS is when Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) was reading Peter Benchley’s shark book in bed in Fawlty Towers.
Captain of the Sea Safari, it was the kid's charter but his boat, Rob Hughes thought something was off when the fin wasn't moving and retrieved it from the water.
He told Sky News that he didn’t find it funny, didn’t find it funny at all, saying: "I can't say I'm very impressed. Pranks like this can have a very real effect on summer coastal business. Not to mention that it is basically deliberate marine littering.”
Although he offered to return the fake fin to the mystery person who created the elaborate hoax, it has been declined and will now be recycled.
Fins aren’t all they seem - image credit: Rob Hughes/ DevonSeaSafari/ BNPS
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Words by Dean Newman
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