The author of the novel Jaws says he couldn't write the book today, now that much more is known about sharks.
Conservationists say sharks are ecologically and commercially extinct in some areas of the world.
The sleek animals may vanish from the deep unless their killing is brought under control, environmentalists say. Knights said around the world, some 100 million sharks, skates and rays are killed every year. Now the man who made a generation think twice before taking a dip at the seaside, Jaws author Peter Benchley, is coming to the rescue of the animal he did so much to demonize. Benchley has joined forces with environmentalists to try and wean Asians off their glutinous shark-fin soup, which is made by boiling the fins with vinegar, starch and flavoring. Benchley said scientists now know so much more about sharks than they did when he wrote his bestseller.