Twenty-five years ago nobody knew much about white sharks.

However Universal Studios decided to break tradition by releasing the film with extensive television advertising. This 1976 novel is based on Benchley's chance meeting in Bermuda with diver Teddy Tucker while writing a story for National Geographic Magazine. Subsequent career
His reasonably successful second novel The Deep is about a honeymooning couple discovering two sunken treasures on the Bermuda reefs—17th century Spanish gold and a fortune in World War Two-era morphine—who are subsequently targeted by a drug syndicate.

Several more of his works were also adapted for cinema including The Deep and The Island.