IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Going in the water again: ‘Jaws’ boat clone supports sharks

Photos and text from The Associated Press

This 1974 photo shows David Bigelow in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Bigelow was an extra in the movie “Jaws” in 1975.

VINHARD HAVEN, MASS. » The Orca is headed back to the waters of New England, but this time, its mission isn’t to hunt sharks. It’s to help save them.

A group of ocean advocates and movie buffs is turning an old lobster fishing vessel into a replica of the Orca, the boat captained by the grizzled shark hunter Quint in “Jaws.”

The work is taking place on Martha’s Vineyard, where Steven Spielberg shot the blockbuster movie in the 1970s.

The occasion doesn’t call for a bigger boat so much as one with a different purpose, said Vineyard native David Bigelow, who acquired the craft and is heading up the project.

When finished, he said, Orca III will be used as an educational tool to help the public understand sharks and as a research vessel for scientists.

The project is dear to the heart of Bigelow, who appeared as an extra in “Jaws,” and to that of his drama teacher Lee Fierro, who played the mother of a shark attack victim.

Part of a boat that is being retrofitted to replicate the boat from the movie “Jaws.” A group of ocean lovers and movie buffs is building a replica of the boat, the Orca, for use as a conservation tool.

Reports of shark sightings on some New England beaches in recent years moved him to take on the project.

“The need to educate people about the new ecosystem we’re living in, because of climate change and the seal population, is probably our only defense,” Bigelow said, sighting two possible drivers of increased shark sightings. “We have basically taken on this role where the boat is going to be used for education.”

Bigelow said that he believes the retrofitting work can be completed by this fall and that the boat can start helping people study sharks by next spring.

The boat will be called Orca III because there were actually two vessels in “Jaws” — Orca and Orca II.

Orca is seen in much of the film, and Orca II was a prop vessel.