Spielberg regrets ‘Jaws’ impact

Film-maker Steven Spielberg has said he truly regrets the "decimation of the shark population" following the success of his 1975 film "Jaws". Spielberg's Oscar-winning thriller told the story of a man-eating great white shark that attacked a US seaside town, prompting a rise in sports fishing across America. "I truly and to this day regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film. I really, truly regret that," Spielberg, 75, told BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs programme. According to a study in Nature last year, the world's population of oceanic sharks has fallen by 71 percent since the 1970s due to overfishing. The Shark Conservation Fund, meanwhile, says 36 percent of the world's 1,250 shark and ray species are currently threatened with extinction. Researchers have blamed films such as "Jaws" for playing a role in the public's perception of sharks, driving support for killing them. Others, however, argue that this attributes too much significance to the influence of Hollywood.