To change perceptions of sharks, swimmer Lewis Pugh takes the plunge at Martha’s Vineyard

John Yang:

Sharks have been cast as the ultimate villain ever since the movie "Jaws." It was released 50 years ago this summer, telling the story of a man eating great white shark terrorizing beachgoers. But the reality is that humans are a bigger threat to sharks than the other way around.

An endurance swimmer wants to get that message out by swimming around Martha's Vineyard, which is where Jaws was filmed. Here again, Ali Rogin.

Ali Rogin:

Endurance swimmer Lewis Pugh is swimming 60 miles around Martha's Vineyard.

Lewis Pugh, Endurance Swimmer:

I swim for as far as I can each day. We then mark the position on the map. I go and sleep and then I get back in the next day at exactly the same spot and carry on.

Ali Rogin:

In just a speedo and swim cap, Pugh faces wind, rough waters, and most unpredictable of all, sharks in the depths below. But the sharks are the point.

Lewis Pugh:

For the past 50 years, it's all been about fear and about the danger of sharks. What I want to do is I want to try to change the narrative for a new generation and say sharks actually bring life, they sustain life, they make oceans healthy.

Ali Rogin:

And he says there's no better backdrop for this message than the place where the "Jaws" effect was born.

Lewis Pugh:

They portrayed sharks in a way that they are villains. They're out to get humans and we know that they are nothing of the sort. And so this is an opportunity to try and tell a new narrative for a new generation.

Ali Rogin:

Globally, on average, 274,000 sharks are killed every day. That's 100 million sharks a year.

Lewis Pugh:

It's an ecocide which is taking place right now. It's completely unsustainable. It's absolute madness. And it's going to lead to a watery desert.

Ali Rogin:

The greatest threat is from overfishing, but it's exacerbated by stigma.

Lewis Pugh:

Sharks are absolutely amazing animals. I mean, they've been around since before the dinosaur. Think about that. They survived five mass extinctions and yet they are really under threat right now. In our generation, we're the only generation that can now save the shark from extinction.

Ali Rogin:

This swim is meant to celebrate sharks. But Pugh is still encroaching on their house. He's accompanied by a kayaker whose vessel has a shark shield, an electromagnetic device that deters sharks without harming them.

Lewis Pugh:

So I'm talking sharks, sharks. I then now got to get into the water and start doing the swim. Well, you can imagine what I'm thinking about, right? And so everything, every little shadow which you see, perhaps it's a rock underwater, everything sort of kind of looks like a shark. And so it's so important that I just keep my mind calm and just say, Lewis, just keep calm. Carry on. It's very easy for the mind to get carried away in the waters of Cape Cod.

Ali Rogin:

Pugh is no stranger tough conditions. He represents the United Nations as patron of the oceans and was the first person to complete a long distance swim in every ocean of the world. He crossed the North Pole, dove into the icy water in Antarctica, swam the length of the Hudson River and through the coral reefs and shipping corridors of the Red Sea, all to raise awareness about threats to our oceans.

But this swim, he says, is one of the most challenging of his career. It's long, it's cold and it's mentally grueling. The morning we spoke to him, he managed to get in two of his planned 10-kilometer for the day in a brutal pre-dawn swim.

Lewis Pugh:

So there I find myself luring myself slowly into this dark, dark black water. And the cold, it just gnaws its way into you day after day. It's a type of cold which demands answer. Why are you in here?

Ali Rogin:

On this swim, he's in here for the sharks. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Ali Rogin.