The Importance of Linguistic Diversity in Shark Science

SHOW NOTES

We begin our conversation by getting to know our guests [09.38]. Hettie currently works for The Shark Trust, which is based in Plymouth, UK. But her path into the world of sharks was, in her own words, “a bit of a weird kind of journey”. Hettie started off studying foreign languages at University before completing a master’s degree in marine conservation. Her current role as Conservation Officer ties those areas of expertise together. She works on conservation projects in many different parts of the world with multiple project partners – particularly the Mediterranean – where her multilingualism is a real asset. More recently, this included the Shark Trust’s collaboration with LAMNA on the Wikimarathon: “this project, which we’re about to talk about, [is] more about linguistic diversity and inclusivity and accessibility to science, which is really exciting.”

Born in Valéncia, Spain, Jaime grew up an avid hiker, but didn’t really connect with the marine side of things until his third year of University [12.12]. It was here that he was introduced to a rather interesting and unusual subject: parasitology, specifically the parasites of sharks and rays. After completing his PhD, Jaime carried on working with elasmobranchs, but also retained a strong connection with the natural heritage of his home country. He wanted to stay in Valéncia, to continue protecting its nature, but found few available jobs. This spurred him to found his own NGO, Associacó LAMNA, an organisation that aims to focus attention on the elasmobranch species found in Spain. Jaime is also former Project Leader for the Save Our Seas Foundation with his work studying spiny butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela) in the Mediterranean and is the project leader of ‘Proyecto Glaucostegus’, the first initiative for the study and conservation of blackchin guitarfish (Glaucostegus cemiculus) in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). “Most people speak about historic heritage, and they understand that you have to protect a special building in your town.” Says Jaime. “People somehow forget about the natural heritage, and how it’s our common heritage and that we have to continue it.”

Making shark science accessible to all is something that both Jaime and Hettie feel strongly about, and improving linguistic diversity is a hugely important step [15.54]. English is largely considered the ‘lingua franca’ (or ‘common language’) in academia, used in all major scientific journals and for international conferences. Jaime describes this as a ‘double-edged sword’: “It’s amazing that we have English to communicate science because then we can go to any conference and sit with 17 different nationalities in a table and keep on talking about the same talks. But at the same time…it comes with a burden or a difficulty because when English is not your mother tongue, you have to spend some years dedicated to mastering this new language. And for some people it’s more difficult, for some people it’s not, for some people it means that they have to spend money on their different studies. And also we tend to see the world of academia only through its papers, through its conferences and technical reports and speaking in proper technical way but it also involves a lot of social situations where you have to be clever, have to be funny, have to be engaging, have to be wise on your choice of words and that’s difficult if you are translating every time in your head because you speak other languages.” For non-native English speakers, there are hidden burdens associated with having to think, read and speak in a different language. “There’s some crazy statistics about how much more effort, or how much more time is taken to read or write a paper in English.” Explains Hettie. Studies have shown that it can take non-native English speakers almost 91% more time to read a paper in English, 50% more time to write one and 94% more time to prepare a presentation for an English-speaking conference.

This also impacts the publication process for some scientists: “If you traditionally get some grammar wrong, or you don’t produce a draft that’s perfect in English…it might be rejected easier. Its just simply not judged on the content of the science, or the quality of the science, but on first perceptions of that English quality” says Hettie. This can sometimes lead to feelings of imposter syndrome, and in some cases deter researchers from publishing their work.

Linguistic bias can also affect how researchers are able to communicate their work to a wider audience [20.56]. In Jaime’s experience, he has sometimes found that he has spent so much time speaking or writing in English that when it comes to discussing his research in Spanish, it is more challenging. This might be because the technical terms or even some names of species don’t yet have a Spanish equivalent, in part due to the lack of research actually conducted in Spanish. Additionally, translating materials can be time-consuming and exhausting, especially on top of all the work that the scientist is already doing. Because of this, Jaime feels that “in sharks and rays, we are very far on the research, but very short on the communication of the research. And that’s a gap we have to look at ourselves and fins ways of shortening, because the image that sharks and rays have in the general public, it’s a very bad one…we need people to connect with that natural heritage and look at sharks as part of the world we are living, and not enemies or predators.”

This is especially important considering that many of the areas where we are seeing rapid declines and biodiversity loss in sharks and rays exist in countries or regions where English is not the first language [25.00]. One example is the Mediterranean, where both Jaime and Hettie carry out much of their work. “A lot of the work that I try to do is creating resources with partners in other languages” explains Hettie. “The areas where we’re experiencing the most rapid biodiversity loss, so say in the Mediterranean, are those areas where the native language isn’t English. So there’s no point creating materials that are English because you need to be able to communicate that science back to the locals, the people who need to actually understand what you’re talking about.” This is essential when it comes to translating science into conservation action, as well as encouraging the next generation of shark scientists [27.00]. “I decided to found my NGO because there was no NGO working with sharks and rays in Spain.” Says Jaime, referring his decision to create LAMNA. “I feel that we will be much more effective if we are able to bring the next generation of elasmobranch researchers [along with us]…There are some students that want to work with sharks and rays and they get to fly to Australia, to fly to the United States to work with this species, when they have them at home. So, we have to try to show them that it’s possible to work with sharks and rays anywhere in the world.”

Working in multiple languages can further benefit shark science and conservation by tapping into previously under-used sources of knowledge [29.18]. Many languages have particular words or peculiarities that don’t exist in English, and there are also local names for species that aren’t recognised by traditional academic texts. Speaking with fishermen in their mother tongue, for example, can reveal the presence of a species previously missed by researchers. “Like for example, blackchin guitar fish, it’s guitarra barba negra, like black beard guitar fish. But when you go to the fishing communities and you speak with them, they call them guitarrón, like “the big of the guitar fishes.”” Says Jaime. “They add on to the guitarra, which is the name to say it’s the big guitarfish, because there is also the small guitarfish in the area, which is the Mediterranean common guitarfish, Rhinobatos rhinobatos. So sometimes even researchers, when they do the research work, they are so used to the English that they directly translate things and we lose that kind of heritage.”

This year, Jaime and Hettie worked together to organise the first ‘Wikimaratón de Tiburones y Rayas’ (Sharks and Rays Wikimarathon), which was a collaboration between LAMNA and The Shark Trust [33.53]. The idea was sparked at Sharks International 2022, a conference which brought together over 400 shark researchers in Valéncia, hosted by The Shark Trust. Jaime was on the organising committee, and put together a small event before the conference where researchers could give talks to the general public in Spanish. But he felt like more needed to be done. While at the conference, Jaime spoke with Director of the Shark Trust Paul Cox, and explained his idea to bring the Spanish speaking community together to build and improve science communication around sharks and rays. It was here that Jaime was introduced to Hettie, and the idea for the Wikimarathon was born!

The Wikimarathon was a special event that aimed to bring together as many Spanish-speaking elasmobranch specialists as possible to populate the digital encyclopedia with articles about sharks and rays in Spanish. This included in-person and online events in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, bringing together 93 researchers, specialists and volunteers. “The idea of these workshops were to show people how to work with the platform,” explains Jaime, “because it’s not only the Wikipedia, but also the Wikicommons, which is a repository of images. A very interesting part of the project is that to have copyright free images for anyone, well identified with the correct species name, so people can use them for their presentations or for their local guides and things like that without stealing pictures from anyone.” The result was an astounding 112 articles written in Spanish, which will be freely available for anyone to access – an amazing feat that was the result of hard work and collaboration.

The topic of linguistic diversity is one that requires more conversation and action, especially in the academic and conservation sectors [50.32]. It requires organisations and institutions in native-English speaking countries to change the status quo, and make more options available to researchers. A few scientific journals have made some moves in the right direction by providing summaries for their journal articles in multiple languages. But, there is still more that can and needs to be done. A good place to start would be supporting initiatives like the Sharks and Rays Wikimarathon and LAMNA – which Jaime and Hettie hope will continue to grow. “The idea is to create a platform, like Wikipedia does…it’s a very open, participatory, horizontal project where anyone can feel that they are part of it. I know it’s a very big project, but we’re willing to make it happen.”

Watch this space!

You can read more about Wikimaratón de Tiburones y Rayas here, and here.

You can also follow the project on Instagram: @rayas_y_tiburones

ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Dr Jaime Penadés-Suay

Born in 1991 in València (Spain), Dr. Jaime Penadés-Suay, is a parasitologist and elasmobranch researcher, founder and president of Associació LAMNA, scientific collaborator of Fundación Oceanogràfic and is currently working as scientific communicator for Fundación Azul Marino. He is a former Project Leader for the Save Our Seas Foundation with his work studying spiny butterfly ray (Gymnura altavela) populations in the Mediterranean and he is the project leader of ‘Proyecto Glaucostegus’, the first initiative for the study and conservation of blackchin guitarfish (Glaucostegus cemiculus) in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). In 2022 he was part of the team that organised the congress Sharks International in València, from which the idea of strengthening the Spanish-speaking elasmobranch community came to light, generating the first Spanish wikimarathon for this species: the“Wikimaratón Tiburones y Rayas”.

You can follow Jaime on Instagram (@jaimepenades and @lamnaassociacio) and LinkedIn.

Hettie Brown

Hettie has always had a strong affiliation to the sea. Born and raised in London, UK, she pursued her interest in the natural world alongside her BA in modern foreign languages, volunteering as much as she could and taking every possible opportunity to gain experience in the field of marine conservation.

She then moved to Plymouth for her MSc in marine conservation and has since stayed put, now working for the Shark Trust. Hettie’s role combines her language and conservation backgrounds, aiming to make species and conservation knowledge more accessible to all.

Her role as Conservation Officer on the Mediterranean Programme involves work on focal species groups such as angel shark and guitarfish conservation projects. Her work has also involved the development of ‘Tiburones y Rayas’ an initiative aiming to give more value to the Spanish-speaking elasmobranch community, remove linguistic barriers to conservation, and give tools to future generations of people working with sharks in Spanish-speaking countries.

You can follow The Shark Trust on Instagram (@thesharktrust) and x/twitter (@sharktrustuk). You can follow Hettie on x/twitter (@hettiemermaid) and find her on LinkedIn.