'We're going to need a bigger...shark': LBC meets Jaws 50 years after the film that 'changed movies forever'

20 June 2025, 09:36 | Updated: 20 June 2025, 12:22

By Henry Riley

@HenryRiley1

‘If you’re going to scare me, you’re going to need a bigger shark’

I don’t love sharks… who does? I also don’t much enjoy being submerged under water for an extended period.

So when Nick Ferrari suggested (or more accurately, insisted) that I go swimming with sharks to mark 50 years since Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jaws was released, to say I was apprehensive would be an understatement.

But I needn't have been worried. In fact, I would do it all over again.

The team at the Skegness Aquarium were absolutely superb, and particularly kind to a petrified reporter who had spent the 3+ hour journey from London to Skegness in a state of panic.

LBC goes swimming with sharks in honour of Jaws

In fact, the most uncomfortable part of the day was getting the wetsuit on.

“Sharks aren’t Jaws, they aren’t megalodon, our sharks are very important”

That is the key message from Dive Officer Jamie Elvidge at the aquarium, and the perception following Jaws hasn’t helped.

“I think we’re still trying to fight the ‘Jaws-syndrome’… but here the message is simple – sharks are not the enemies, they’re our friends”.

After an extensive safety briefing, we had a useful education on the importance of sharks to conservation and the food cycle – including the shocking statistic that 11,000 sharks are killed an hour.

It’s a fact that puts it into perspective. 100 million sharks on average killed by humans each year, 5 humans killed by sharks each year.

Despite putting me at ease, I’d be lying if I said I wasn't scared.

But I was in more than capable hands. Jamie and his colleague Josh Brown were superb, with constant communication and clarity, as was 78 year old volunteer ‘Granny Shark’ Pauline who helped lower me into the water.

The 40 minutes that you are under water flies by. From giving the fish ‘sand showers’ to help them remove dead cells, to having fish fed right in front of your mask (and feeling them bump into you), to see the sharks and rays up so close is something I’ll never forget.

Skegness Aquarium celebrates it’s 10th birthday on the 25th June, and as a frightened reporter I must say they couldn’t have gone to more trouble to put me at ease.

Fear of sharks and scuba diving: conquered.

Message to Nick Ferrari: ‘If you’re going to scare me, you’re going to need a bigger shark’

Find out more here: https://skegness-aquarium.uk/