My Journey to Shark Science
BY JASMIN GRAHAM
When I was little I would always tell people that I wanted to be a veterinarian. I even went to college on a pre-vet track. However, the ocean had always been a wonderful and mysterious place to me. I spent countless days fishing with my dad and several summers visiting family in Myrtle Beach, SC, but I had no idea that you could study the ocean and its inhabitants as a job. Then one summer in high school, my parents sent me to a marine science camp. I had a blast and discovered for the first time what a marine scientist was. Immediately, I knew I wanted to work with marine animals, but unable to give up my dream of being a veterinarian I decided to be a marine animal veterinarian. As I went into my junior year of high school, I began looking at schools with zoology classes dealing with marine animals and researching what I would need to do to secure a place at veterinarian school.
Once I arrived at college and began taking some of the courses, I soon figured out I was much more interested in science than veterinarian medicine. I ended up doing a slight pivot from my pre-vet track biology degree to a marine biology degree. In college I also met a professor who was a shark scientist and he opened my eyes to the group of animals that would soon become my life’s work. I met him in a research matchmaking event put on by the school my freshman year of college and I was able to work with him that summer as part of a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. It was during this program that I began a project to build the phylogeny of the hammerhead family. A phylogeny is similar to a family tree in that it shows which species are most closely related to each other. Hammerhead sharks are a group of animals named for their extended cranium (or ‘hammer’). Many of the species are anatomically very easy to differentiate, but a cryptic species (a species that looks like another species but is genetically distinct) has recently been identified. That summer I learned how to digitally segment (virtually dissect) CT scans of sharks. Not only did I learn this unique skill, but I fell in love with sharks. I was able to continue the project throughout my entire college career and turn it into a Bachelor’s essay. Not only was I able to build a phylogeny based on the anatomy from the CT scans, but I also learned some genetics techniques that allowed me to be able to build a phylogeny based on the hammerhead DNA as well. We used a technique called Mitogenome capture which is a process where the whole mitochondrial genome (genetic data found in the mitochondria of the cell) is extracted using a series of chemical reactions and heat cycling. This involves a lot of precise pipetting of materials and diligence to avoid contamination.
After I graduated college, I decided I wanted to branch out of the lab and do a more field based project for graduate school. Luckily, the principal investigator I had previously worked with was able to connect me with a colleague of his that specialized in field ecology and was looking to take graduate students. He had a grant for a project on the smalltooth sawfish. I was very interested in conservation, so the ability to study a critically endangered species was just too good to pass up. My project focused on tracking their movements to identify places they spent a lot of time and places that they had a high probability of interacting with commercial fisheries in Florida. The project was fulfilling because my research had direct implications for management and protection of the species. Nowadays, I continue to do movement ecology studies in collaboration with a colleague and friend I met during my Master’s thesis work. I am so glad I found my way to the exciting field of shark science!
