Shark Scientist Tags Bonnetheads, Stages Extinction Theater — SkimNews
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- Jasmin Graham, a shark scientist and science communicator in Sarasota, Florida, runs the nonprofit Minorities in Shark Sciences and co-chairs the Priorities, Projects, and Campaigns committee of the America the Beautiful for All Coalition.
- Minorities in Shark Sciences has an artist in residence building props and sets for theater shows, including an immersive experience about shark mass extinction that combines a whodunit and an escape room.
- The upcoming bonnethead shark survey involves bringing specimens on board, measuring them, collecting fin clips for genetic kinship analysis, and taking muscle biopsies to measure toxin loads — particularly brevetoxin from red tide algal blooms common in Florida.
- Researchers make a small incision to implant transmitters inside bonnetheads, suture them up, and release them so movements can be tracked for up to three years.
- Graham is also an aerialist who trains in lyra (aerial hoop), pole, and silks before office work, and unwinds at Beerbusters, a Blockbusters-themed bar hosting music bingo where she once won a printer and a 3D puzzle.
Why it matters: Graham's nonprofit model pairs bonnethead field research (using three-year transmitters) with public-facing theater and southeastern environmental justice organizing, showing how a single scientist can run science, storytelling, and policy work in parallel — a structure that could broaden recruitment into marine biology from underrepresented communities.
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