The first time the film crew shot on the water, it was for a scene in which Gottlieb and stars Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider go on the ocean in a small boat to look for the shark. (Gottlieb was later cut out of the scene when it was reshot.) The first night was a portent of things to come, Gottlieb said. First he fell off the boat into water that was between 48 and 52 degrees Fahrenheit. After he changed into dry clothes, they began shooting again. "As we're playing the next take, I hear the cameraman go 'Ooops!' as a wave almost sweeps him over the side," he wrote. "The swell crashes over the bow, dropping about a hundred gallons of seawater onto the sound recorder, who takes a wet earphone out of his head and comments, 'That's a wrap for sound.'... And that was our first day shooting on the ocean. One soaked principal [actor], one change of wardrobe, and a $2,500 Nagra recorder shot. Neptune was trying to tell us something."
