Elasmo Week

BY HEIDI MCILVENNY

Elasmo Week is a virtual event about sharks, skates and rays - a group of fish collectively called Elasmobranchs. Real scientists will be talking about the various and mind-blowing ways they study elasmobranchs while celebrating as many species as they can! It is a free week-long event, and if you miss out on any of the live talks, they will be available on the MISS YouTube channel for future binge-watching.

Where: Minorities In Shark Sciences (MISS) YouTube channel

When: Sunday 6th September – Sunday 13th September, 8-10pm EST

If you were to draw a shark scientist, what would they look like?

Now, if that drawing was of a white male that you saw on Shark Week one time, scrumple that piece of paper up and throw it in the bin. It is time to introduce Elasmo Week.

Every year millions of people look forward to the Discovery Channel infesting their TV screens with fierce Great Whites tearing their prey apart, celebrity vs shark' competitions', and the inevitable hunt for the long-extinct megalodon. The mysteriousness, the fear, the curiosity, and the downright ridiculousness (yes, I'm talking about sharks flying out of tornadoes) have been captivating viewers for years. It has also been exasperating many actual shark scientists, for years.

The pop-culture phenomenon exaggerates the danger of sharks, perpetuates pseudo-science, as well as showcasing little to no representation of female scientists and scientists of colour. The lack of diversity even extends to the shark species that are their focus. While slow progress is being made, for many, it hasn't happened fast enough. "I started Elasmo Week because I was tired of seeing the same three white men on TV showing the same tagging and breaching shark work," the Elasmo Week founder said. "I wanted to show off all the other science done by diverse scientists around the world!".

I wanted to know more about what we can expect from the very first Elasmo Week and what it hopes to achieve, so I called up the founder and a few of this year's speakers. 

The theme of Elasmo Week is diversity; diversity in sharks, science and scientists. "We plan on highlighting the various ways of doing elasmobranch research, showing off as many species as we can and celebrating the diversity of scientists in the field" explains the Elasmo Week founder.

Annabel Gong, an MSc grad student from the University of San Diego and host of the LGBTQ+ Stemcast podcast believes that representation in STEM is imperative, "young scientists need to see people who look like them in shark sciences, and in STEM in general, because it is so rare". Elasmobranch research can be incredibly competitive, and underrepresented and minority people have additional barriers and hurdles to overcome. Elasmo Week is providing an opportunity to show the diversity of researchers at differing career stages supporting each other and working together in the field of shark science. It is this diversity in Elasmo Week that makes it unique.

Much of the Shark Week programming focuses on research in the United States, even though people all over the world are doing incredible work. For Alexandra McInturf, a researcher at the Irish Basking Shark Group (IBSG), Elasmo Week is an opportunity to demonstrate why diversity in her team is essential. "Many of the IBSG team are women, some of our team are Irish and some international, but we are all driven to this unique ecosystem to learn more about it, and to help conserve an animal that migrates through international waters... We have different perspectives, but all work together for a common purpose". 

As well as ensuring representation of the genuine diversity in the field, Elasmo Week is a rare opportunity for speakers to share their stories and research with the public authentically. For TV entertainment is usually prioritised over sobering conservation messages or didactic narratives. This precedence can result in programming that communicates misinformation to the public or untrue representations of the scientist and the species they study. Elasmo Week will not be editing the talks as is the case in many tv shows. 

Over the week there will be 15 talks from 17 speakers, all at varying stages in their careers, from countries across the world including Chile, UK, Brazil, USA, and Australia. Their stories will include personal accounts of their journey's into shark science, to how they are using Fitbits, drones and underwater treadmills in their elasmobranch research. Speakers are keen to highlight species that don't usually get the spotlight so with over 1000 elasmobranch species for them to choose from you are guaranteed to leave Elasmo Week with a new perspective on the biodiversity in our oceans, and the people that study them.

TOP TIP

Associate Professor at Rhode Island College, Dr Anabela Maia has a top tip for any aspiring or early-career scientists; make your own opportunities. "If you think something is cool, then reach out to the researcher, I have entertained questions from middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students. It doesn't matter where you are in life if you want to talk to a someone, the vast majority of scientists tend to be very open and are excited to talk about their research".

Many of the Elasmo Week speakers echoed this sentiment and are encouraging everyone to ask them questions about their research, conservation, how to get into marine science and life in STEM. So, if you are interested in their work, reach out to the scientists you've heard speak at Elasmo Week!

Thank you to everyone involved in Elasmo Week that kindly took the time to speak with me for this article. I look forward to watching your talks!

Twitter Handles

Elasmo Week @ElasmoWeek ; Minorities In Shark Science (MISS) @MISS_Elasmo ; LGBTQ+ Stemcast @LGBTQstemcast ; Heidi McIlvenny @Heidi_McIlvenny ; Jasmin Graham @Elasmo_Gal ; Dr Anabela Maia @AnabelaM ; Eloisa Pinheiro Giareta @eloisa_p ; Jaida Elcock @ soFISHtication ; Annabel Gong @AnnabelGong ; Dr Sora Kim @SoraLKim ; Prof. Francisco Concha @panchotiburones ; Carlee Jackson @CarleeMJ_ ; Lauren Eve Simonitis @OceanExplauren ; Dr Camile Cáceres @Camila13Caceres ; Julianna Kadar @jpkadar ; Dr Dean Grubbs https://marinelab.fsu.edu/people/faculty/grubbs/ ; Symone Johnson Barkley @ScientistSymone ; Jennie Janssen @JellyJanssen ; Dr Marianne Porter @MarianneEPorter ; Alexandra McInturf @AGMcInturf ; Dr Natasha Phillips @sunfishresearch @Swimming_head ; Irish Basking Shark Group @BaskingIrish ; Dr Catherine Macdonald @dr_catmac ; Dr David Shiffman @WhySharksMatter