Building safe spaces for sharks, and shark scientists
SHOW NOTES
We usually begin the podcast by asking our guests what their most memorable ocean experience has been to date. But given that Jasmin has answered this before on an earlier episode of the podcast (Episode 5, Becoming Shark Scientists) and in honour of the 4th birthday of MISS, host Isla was keen to know if Jasmin had a particularly memorable experience from the last four years [5.56]. A tough question, seen as Jasmin has achieved so much in such a short period, but she recalled a special moment that occurred while she was searching on Google for photographs of shark scientists to use in a presentation. Just a few years previously, Jasmin had performed the same Google image search and found many images, but of the same type of person: white men (and perhaps the odd photo of Eugenie Clark). She was unable to find representation of scientists who looked like her, a woman of colour. This lack of representation for gender minorities of colour led Jasmin, along with co-founders Carlee, Jaida and Amani, to create Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS) four years ago, and since Jasmin has spoken many times on this issue, using the Google image search to back up her argument. But more recently, Jasmin realised that something had changed; now when she googled ‘shark scientist’, she found so much diversity. For Jasmin, this was a really amazing moment – seeing how far things had come, and the impact that MISS has been able to have in a relatively short space of time.
Something else that has changed since Jasmin was last on the podcast is that she can now add ‘author’ to her list of achievements. She describes the process of writing Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Scientist as “even harder than I thought…but also a really cathartic process” [4.31]. She was able to take a step back and review everything that has happened in her life so far, and look at the bigger picture in how her work has impacted the landscape of research and conservation. Her goal was to make the book accessible to everyone and to “tell a story that was raw and gritty and rough round the edges…and not finished, because that’s how stories are for the majority of people’s lives.”
Sharks Don’t Sink weaves together several different themes. One is, of course, sharks! Jasmin explains that sharks have always been fascinating to her, particularly because of how long they have been on the planet and just how much they have survived [10.24]. “To have an organism that gets things right, and you know, sort of, quote, unquote, prehistoric, where they’re in their form that they were more or less millions of years ago, that’s super rare. I mean, you have dinosaurs. Dinosaurs came, and then they went extinct? And what do we have, we have chickens. And that’s pretty wild to think that the closest relative that we have to like a T rex is a chicken…and so it’s really wild to think that sharks are here before dinosaurs, and they looked like sharks, and they still looked like sharks. And not much has changed.” It means that sharks are incredibly well adapted, resilient creatures, and as a human who has only been on the planet for a “blink of an eye”, sharks have always captivated Jasmin for this reason. But she is also passionate about them for a different reason: how misrepresented they are in society. There are a lot of negative feelings towards sharks, and in some cases hostility. Jasmin discusses in the book how, in this way, she feels an affinity towards them, expressing how people of colour have been similarly maligned and misrepresented. This has driven a passion in Jasmin to “give sharks some good PR”, and it’s a theme we’ll come back to later in the episode.
Before we get to that, however, we spend some time devoted to a species Jasmin has worked very closely with, the smalltooth sawfish [15.09]. They encapsulate everything she loves about sharks and rays as a whole. For starters, they are the prime example of how millions of years of evolution can give rise to some weird and wonderful body plans. The sawfish essentially has a giant hedgetrimmer on its face, which it uses to ‘slash’ through shoals of fish – an extremely unique hunting strategy. Jasmin is really interested in finding out more about them, and her research has contributed to our understanding of them. Her work is especially important considering that they are Critically Endangered. In Florida, where Jasmin works, there exists a ‘lifeboat’ population that are so nicknamed because they are literally keeping the species afloat. Jasmin is really interested in finding out how these sawfish are fitting into the ecosystem, why they are holding strong in the United States, and how we can better protect them.
However, Jasmin hasn’t always felt comfortable or able to pursue her passion for shark science due to the microaggressions and biases she has experienced as a woman of colour in academia [22.46]. The same negative associations and portrayals Jasmin sees with sharks, she has also experienced herself – people assuming things about her, and acting a certain way towards her, because of how she looks. There have been a few times in Jasmin’s life where she has made the difficult decision to leave academia, and at the time, scientific research. Another common theme in Sharks Don’t Sink is burnout and exhaustion, and taking time out to heal. Isla asks Jasmin what she would say to someone listening in a similar position, facing a similarly difficult decision, and her response is: “the price of doing science is not your happiness or your peace. That is if that is what you feel like you are paying to do science, I will tell you that is too high a cost. And so evaluating that and saying, What am I giving up in order to be in this space, and deciding if that is a price that you’re willing to pay. And for me, it wasn’t at that time, it was not a price that I was willing to pay” [30.55]. She also discusses how this ‘price’ varies greatly between people, based on their identity and background. For example, there are financial barriers to pursuing a career in science that may affect some more than others, as well as organisational and systemic barriers that prevent some people from participating in science more than others. It was experiencing these barriers herself that led Jasmin to first leave academia, but then to strive to change the status quo and create new spaces that were safe, accessible, welcoming and inclusive for all. “There is not one way to do [science].” She emphasises. “Every way is valid. And if someone is invalidating your knowledge, again, you don’t need to talk to them. Go and get a second opinion.”
Somewhere where people can go get that second opinion is MISS [38.11]. Minorities in Shark Sciences, which is referred to as “MISS”, is an organization dedicated to supporting gender minorities of color who are interested in shark research or conservation. “We support people in a number of ways.” Explains Jasmin. “One we provide community. So ways for you to connect and engage and network with people who have or who are of a similar mindset that everyone belongs in science and they’re willing to make space, they’re willing to collaborate. They’re willing to work together, not in an exploitive, or extractive way, but in a truly collaborative way where everyone lifts as they climb.” This includes providing fellowships for MISS members to pursue their passion, and hosting workshops that allow budding scientists the chance to gain experience on board the RV Garvin, the vessel for the University of Miami’s Field School, directed by Dr Catherine Macdonald (you can learn more about how Catherine and Jasmin met here). There are also virtual workshops for those who can’t attend in person, and hybrid programs where there’s a little bit of both – online lessons combined with in-person skills sessions. And it doesn’t stop there: “We also want to expose kids and younger people to marine science, because I think I was in the 10th grade when I discovered marine science was even a job that you could do. So we do a lot of outreach programs with kids. And then we also want people to move from fear to fascination with sharks. So we do a lot of education of adults as well, to help them sort of overcome their fears, and work with us and learn and be engaged with us as community partners.” MISS has come such a long way in four short years – from the meeting of four like-minded individuals on Twitter, to their first workshop aboard the Garvin, to now supporting over 380 members in over 70 countries.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, Jasmin has also returned to science and is actively continuing with her research – although this time independent of an institution [45.19]. Sharks Don’t Sink reflects on Jasmin’s first field season as a ‘rogue scientist’, and discusses some of the challenges and positives. “I have so much more balance in my life.” She says. “[And] I feel like I’ve done a lot of really great research…you know, the naysayers were like, well, you’re gonna have issues getting funding, you’re gonna have issues with all of these sort of infrastructural things. I talked about it in the book of figuring out, okay, how am I going to get access to a boat…I got a lovely Boat Club membership with freedom Boat Club, and they love the work that we’re doing…I think that all of these opportunities that have come about, because of this flexibility of going rogue, has been amazing. And I think that I also have gotten to challenge the status quo a lot more. Because there’s not an inherent risk career, right? …In academia, there’s a lot of fear that’s created, where people feel like, Oh, if I rock the boat, then I’m gonna get blackballed. Or this is going to be a whole problem. And there’s all of this politics that plays into it. And so people can’t address things or hold people accountable in the way that they should be held accountable. And so by having this detachment, I can be that accountability, where there’s not really any loss to me. And so I feel able to advocate for people in a way that people inside the system cannot.”
Jasmin’s book is available now, here.
You can follow along with Jasmin’s work on her website, here or on X/Twitter @elasmo_gal.
You can also find out more about Minorities in Shark Sciences and how to get involved here. Or, you can follow them on social media (@miss_elasmo).
You can also check out Jasmin’s Save Our Seas Foundation project, Gill Guardians, here.
ABOUT OUR GUEST
JASMIN GRAHAM, PRESIDENT AND CEO OF MINORITIES IN SHARK SCIENCES
Jasmin is a marine biologist in the field of elasmobranch ecology and evolution, currently specializing in smalltooth sawfish and hammerhead sharks. She is the co-founder of Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), an organization providing support for women of color in the field of shark biology and ecology, in order to foster greater diversity in marine science. She is a recipient of the WWF Conservation Leadership Award, the Safina Launchpad Center Fellowship, and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
