Jaws Easter Egg - Author Cameo + Midgets

I'm sorry, but what does the midgets comment mean?

Midgets is easy. Use your imagination. A little person in a shark cage makes a shark look much larger.

Rooster is right, for several scenes they used a midget in a small shark cage with a real shark to get the shot correct. After all, they couldn't control the huge mechanical shark well enough to make it do everything they needed! :-)

they changed the script to hooper surviving because at one point of filming, a great white attacked the empty cage and got caught, so it began thrashing dramatically, so they kept the film... the scene where he gets outta the cage and the shark tears at it empty is real and it really was stuck

I guess i should explain a little more. Footage was shot of a small person in a small cage with a regular shark - to make the shark look bigger. However, smaller people still require the same amount of oxygen in their air, but the air tanks had to be shrunk down too, so there wasn't enough air to do proper shots. Just After they gave up shooting the cage was destroyed. (that shot was used)

I think the reason is that while they where filming with no-one in the cage, the biggest shark got trapped on the rope. So it looked like it was attacking the cage. And hence they had great footage, but there was no-one in the cage, thus they made it that hooper escapes.