The film Jaws was released in 1975, and it created less-than-positive views about sharks. To mark its 50th anniversary – and highlight the plight facing sharks today – one man just finished a nearly two-week swim around Martha’s Vineyard.

British-South African endurance athlete Lewis Pugh, 55, has a history of making frigid swims to raise awareness about threats to our oceans. In fact, in 2007, he braved temperatures just at or below freezing to become the first person to swim across the geographic North Pole. His goal was to highlight the melting of Arctic ice.

For his most recent swim, Pugh had slightly warmer water temperatures – a bit below 50 degrees – while he swam about 60 miles around Martha’s Vineyard, where scenes from Jaws were filmed.

He started on May 15 and finished on May 26, forced to cover very short distances on some days due to rough weather, including a nor’easter. In all, he was in the water for about 24 hours. It was worth it to him, though, to challenge perceptions of sharks and to urge others to protect them.

After finishing the swim, he said in a Facebook post, “It's been one of the toughest swims of my life. Cold water, relentless wind, big waves and the constant thought of what might be beneath me.

“But I swam here for a reason…

“Sharks are not monsters. They’re magnificent. They’re essential. And they’re seriously endangered.

“As apex predators, they keep the ocean in balance. Take them out, and the entire ecosystem starts to collapse.

“Right now, sharks need us.”

When he wasn’t in the water, Pugh used the attention around his swim to chat with shark scientists and advocates, the public, and local officials about shark conservation. You can see more about his swim on his Facebook page.

According to a 2021 analysis, one third of sharks, rays, and chimaeras are threatened with extinction. Other research estimates that 100 million sharks are killed each year. Overfishing is particularly problematic for sharks, due to their slow growth and reproduction rates, as well as their late sexual maturity.