By HOWARD POUSNER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Even before “Jaws” sent chills down the spines of millions of moviegoers in 1975, sharks were thought to be merciless killers, the most fearsome animal in the world’s oceans. But a new exhibit from Australia making its world premiere at the Georgia Aquarium Oct. 3 treats sharks more like the hunted than the hunter, chronicles a dramatic decrease in their numbers, and seeks to turn around more than 30 years of bad PR.

The 10,000-square-foot interactive exhibit “Planet Shark: Predator or Prey” will include an extensive collection of real shark jaws, full-scale shark models and shark cages from the filming of “Jaws.” Sure to be most eye-catching, will be a “frozen in time” display featuring a 10-foot frozen adult Mako shark and its prey, a similarly iced 700-pound Bluefin tuna.

“We want people to come away from the exhibit with empathy for an animal that has been mistreated for all the wrong reasons,” says Mike Bhana, a documentarian, author and producer of the new exhibit for Grande Exhibitions, speaking from New Zealand. “We must respect them, they’re predators and they can be dangerous. But they are a vital part of the environment and the role they play is significant” in maintaining the health of marine ecosystems.

But an increasingly vulnerable one, it turns out, with estimates that as many as 100 million sharks are killed by fisheries every year, according to Oceana, an ocean conservation organization. Often their capture is unintentional, when they’re caught in nets set for tuna and swordfish, but sometimes they’re taken purposefully.

Sharks are being increasingly targeted as new markets for their meat and fins grow. For shark fin soup, countless sharks are “finned,” an inhumane practice (and illegal in most international waters) in which their fins are sliced off and their carcasses thrown back in the water.

In June, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group released dire results of the first study to determine the global conservation status of 64 species of open ocean (pelagic) sharks and rays. It revealed that 32 percent are threatened with extinction, primarily due to overfishing.

The IUCN classifies great hammerhead and scalloped hammerhead sharks, as well as giant devil rays, as globally “endangered.” Even great whites, depicted in “Jaws” as killing machines, are classified as “vulnerable.”

The multimedia “Planet Shark,” commanding the exhibit area currently filled by “Titanic Aquatic” (closing Sept. 7) as well as adjoining space, will include some dramatic big-screen shark images of its own.

“We often see documentaries on Discovery and National Geographic about sharks, but to actually see these animals projected in real size on big screens will have a huge amount of impact,” Bhana predicts.

Georgia Aquarium president and chief operating officer Anthony Godfrey is excited about how the “out of water” exhibit will dovetail with the downtown attraction’s growing shark collection, now numbering 70 in 14 species.

“After [visitors] go through this exhibit, there will be a much better understanding of sharks’ role in our oceans and how what I do everyday affects sharks’ lives,” Godfrey says. “And how does that affect your life too, because this is a circle that’s being driven by us.”

Tickets (including aquarium and exhibit admission), available starting today, will be $31.50, $26.25 for ages 65 and up, $23.50 ages 5-15. A closing date has not been announced, but the show will run well into the new year. More information: georgiaaquarium.org.