Wendy Benchley urges action to protect sharks, highlights Peter Benchley Ocean Awards
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Summary
At a Sister Cities Association event in Wilmington, ocean advocate Wendy Benchley warned that mass shark killings and untested seabed mining threaten marine ecosystems, credited demand-reduction campaigns and marine protected areas for conservation gains, and promoted the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards.
Wendy Benchley, a longtime ocean advocate and cofounder of the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards, told an audience in Wilmington that protecting sharks and expanding marine protected areas are central to ocean health.
Benchley opened by recounting how her late husband Peter Benchley's novel Jaws and her experience in local elected office shaped a life devoted to marine conservation. “We were horrified that some people took Jaws as a license to go out and kill sharks,” she said, and described how the family turned that attention toward research and advocacy.
Benchley framed several specific conservation priorities. She said shark finning—severing fins and returning sharks to the water alive to die—has driven staggering losses. “Today, there are a 100,000,000 sharks killed every every year,” she said, and warned those losses threaten broader ocean ecosystems. To address demand, Benchley pointed to celebrity-driven public education campaigns run by WildAid and others. She played an ad featuring Yao Ming and described a reported 80% drop in demand for shark fin soup in China after sustained campaign work.
Benchley also highlighted marine protected areas (MPAs) as a practical tool for recovery, calling them “national parks for the ocean.” She said about 9.8% of the ocean is currently protected and described a global campaign to reach 30% by 2030.
The presentation wove personal stories with conservation lessons: Benchley described a dramatic cage-dive incident in which she removed a rope from a great white’s mouth and a separate Sea of Cortez episode in which divers freed a manta ray and the animal returned to the boat for days—accounts she used to argue that empathy and stewardship can change public attitudes and behavior.
In audience questions, Benchley said her own NGOs have not focused on deep-sea mining and urged caution: she described proposed mining equipment as “a massive machine as big as four houses” and said there has been insufficient study of where disturbed seafloor debris would travel. She expressed support for wind, solar and other low-carbon energy while recommending robust environmental standards for specific projects. On eco-tourism, she encouraged travelers to use accredited operators and reef-safe sunscreens and to support local limits on diver numbers.
Benchley promoted the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards, cofunded in Peter Benchley’s memory and partnered with a coalition of aquariums; she invited attendees to the awards ceremony on May 7 in Monterey and noted a new documentary, Jaws at 50, that chronicles shifts in public understanding of sharks over the past half-century.
The event concluded with a short question-and-answer period and thanks from local hosts; organizers said they would share the recorded talk beyond Wilmington.
