I mean in real life they would call the coast guard wouldn’t they?
And there was the Quint (sp) character, telling the other two, during a drunken night on tbe boat, about the sailors dying from shark attacks after the USS Indianapolis was sunk. IMO, an experience like that would not have led him to want to be the only boat and crew, and take days to eliminate a threat.
But that’s the fantasy part of the movies, making the ridiculous believable.