Kay and her assistants notice that the resident dolphins, especially two individuals Cindy and Sandy, are afraid of leaving their pen and going out into the lagoon.

Later, Calvin Bouchard, the park manager, welcomes his friend, adventurer and hunter Philip FitzRoyce, and Mike's younger brother Sean arrives for a visit having taken the summer off from college.

Flushed out from her refuge inside a filtration pipe, the shark begins to wreak havoc on the park, injuring Kelly, and causing a leak that nearly drowns everyone in the underwater tunnel.

FitzRoyce and his assistant, Jack Tate, go down to the filtration pipe in an attempt to lure the shark back in as a trap to kill it.

Trapped inside the pipe and unable to reach the ladder to the exit hatch, he decides to kill the shark with a bang stick to no effect.

Hearing that the shark has been lured into the pipe, Mike and Kay go down to repair the underwater tunnel, so the technicians can restore air pressure and drain the water.

Calvin orders the pumps to be shut down to suffocate the shark, but this act instead allows it to break free from the pipe and attack Mike and Kay, but they are again saved by the dolphins.

The shark suddenly appears in front of the window and smashes through the glass, flooding the control room and killing a technician.

When the shark's mouth is open, Mike notices FitzRoyce's corpse which has drifted there from inside its belly still holding the grenade.

Mike uses a bent pole to pull its pin, triggering the grenade's explosion and killing the shark while he and Kay take cover.

[7] Simmons outlined a story and commissioned National Lampoon writers John Hughes and Todd Carroll for a script.

[8][10] However, industry magazines also reported that the project failed because Zanuck and Brown wanted to produce a PG rated film, while Universal wished to include material which would have 'destined' the film to be rated R.[11] According to Simmons, Zanuck and Brown preferred the original script, while Simmons also had other creative differences with Universal.

[13] He attempted to involve experimental filmmaker Murray Lerner in Jaws 3, telling him that people at the Marineland theme park in Florida had seen his 1978 3D film Sea Dream.

Richard Matheson, who had written the script for Steven Spielberg's 1971 television film Duel, says that he wrote a "very interesting" outline, although the story is credited to "some other writer".

[17] Alves said in an interview in June 2020 that approximately 20 minutes of footage were cut from the final film due to Landsburg's insistence.

[19][20] The character of Calvin Bouchard (played by Louis Gossett Jr.) was originally intended to be the shark's final victim though the producers enjoyed his performance so much the script was rewritten for him to survive.

Roy Scheider, who played Police Chief Martin Brody in the first two films, laughed at the thought of Jaws 3, saying that "Mephistopheles ... couldn't talk me into doing [it] ...

[13] Jaws 3-D had two 3D consultants: the production started with Chris Condon, president of StereoVision,[24] and Stan Loth was later added to the team for the ArriVision 3D.

He says that "the left and right images [in Jaws 3-D] are very well-matched, and the photography is very clean; it's restful to the eye, and though we do have the occasional effects where things do emerge toward the audience from the plane of projection, you come out of the film without a headache.

What is required of the theatre is both the special projection lens and a reflective "silver" screen to enable the polarized images to reflect back to the viewer with the appropriate filter on each eye blocking out the wrong image, thus leaving the viewer to see the film from two angles as the eyes naturally see the world.

[29] The score was composed and conducted by Alan Parker, who had previously provided music for British television shows including Van der Valk and Minder.

[34] Television stations were encouraged to broadcast the featurette, Making of Jaws 3-D: Sharks Don't Die, in a prime-time slot between July 16 and 22, 1983 to take advantage of an advertisement in that week's issue of TV Guide.

[35] Alan Landsburg Productions found itself in trouble for using 90 seconds of footage from the National Geographic 1983 documentary film The Sharks in the featurette without authorization.

Hayes says this action "was pure nonsense considering some cinemas were actually turning over more money per screen than the latest Star Wars film".

Its critical consensus reads, "A cheese-soaked ocean thriller with no evident reason to exist, Jaws 3 bellows forth with a plaintive yet ultimately unheeded cry to put this franchise out of viewers' misery.

[47] Allrovi, however, says that "the suspense sequences were made somewhat more memorable during the film's original release with 3D photography, an attribute lost on video, thereby removing the most distinctive element of an otherwise run-of-the-mill sequel.

"[48] Derek Winnert says that "with Richard Matheson's name on the script you'd expect a better yarn" although he continues to say that the film "is entirely watchable with a big pack of popcorn.

[17] Later reviews expressed astonishment "that a sequel this downright abominable didn't kill the franchise, but that it actually would be followed by a movie that was arguably worse—Jaws: The Revenge.

[52] Jaws 3-D was nominated for five 1983 Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Lou Gossett Jr.), Screenplay, and Newcomer (Cindy and Sandy, "The Shrieking Dolphins"), but received none.