Jaws boat to return on the 45th year anniversary of the movie

Press Release

Return Of The Orca

18. July 2020

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The Orca, Quint’s legendary boat from the film Jaws, is being recreated by the original people involved in the blockbuster who designed and built her for the film released in 1975.

Rather than hunting the great white shark, as in the film, part of the Orca’s new mission will be researching marine life and helping people better understand the varieties of shark species in the area around Martha’s Vineyard including great white sharks. 

Jaws author Peter Benchley was a huge advocate of conservation, a legacy continued by his widow. Wendy Benchley is on the board of directors of Beneath The Waves, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting ocean health and focusing on threatened species conservation, who will use the new Orca as part of its mission offering expeditions for the organization’s researchers.

Helping realise this project is academy award nominee and Jaws production designer Joe Alves. Also involved is Martha’s Vineyard local Chris Crawford, who refitted the boat ‘Warlock’ in just six weeks back in 1974, creating the Orca in Jaws. This time round, the new Orca will be a refit from a Nova Scotia lobster boat, the “Lydia”, found on the north shore of Massachusetts.

As well as good news for local conservation efforts, the project is also looking to help local youth charities on Martha’s Vineyard. After completion of the build, the Orca III will be launched at a public christening ceremony into the waters off Martha’s Vineyard, just like in the film. 

Orca III will then begin her conservationist mission. Greg Skomal, PhD, and Marine Fisheries biologist at Martha’s Vineyard Fisheries, will journey aboard the Orca III to the waters off Martha’s Vineyard.  There he will work with his crew to stage research of the sharks around the island prowling the waters for the rich seal population which has exploded over the past 20 years. 

From there, the future of the Orca III will be dedicated to giving movie fans a boat to visit that they haven’t seen in decades as well as providing a vessel for the scientists at Beneath The Waves to use in their conservation efforts. 

Austin Gallagher, PhD, and CEO and Chief Scientist for Beneath The Waves, said: “The return of the Orca represents an evolution of the mission for which that craft was built. In the classic film, she was a vessel for destruction. Now she’ll be a part of the preservation and study of the marine world we at Beneath The Waves have been focused on for the last several years in the Northwest Atlantic.”

Source: returnoftheorca.com