Booktails: "Sharks Don’t Sink"

Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist

By Jasmin Graham

Are you still riding that elasmobranch-loving high from Shark Week?

Good, because I have just the book to keep the good times rolling. From marine biologist and co-founder of Minorities in Shark Sciences, this inspiring memoir of a Black scientist’s upstream swim toward a rewarding, meaningful, and aligned career outside the traditional confines of academia will satisfy that craving for shark facts left by everyone’s favorite annual Discovery Channel series.

Sharks Don’t Sink: Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist by Jasmin Graham is a short yet insightful memoir that sparks enthusiasm and respect for one of nature’s most misunderstood creatures, while cultivating a deeper understanding of the need for diversity in all aspects of life.

Jasmin Graham will never forget her first shark, a three-foot long, rough-skinned, strongly muscled, and strikingly beautiful bonnethead.

One look at this little hammerhead shark, and Graham fell in love with the whole species. So began her long journey to becoming a shark scientist.

At first, Graham tried to follow the traditional path to becoming a marine biologist, but she soon realized that in a male-dominated field, the microaggressions and constant obstacles thrown at young women of color made traditional academic study no longer worth the struggle. So, Graham shifted her focus away from the traditional path and sought to pursue her passion in another way. Joining with three other Black women whom she found through the hashtag #BlackInNature, Graham co-founded Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), an organization dedicated to providing support and opportunities for young women of color pursuing marine studies. This launched Graham’s career as a rogue shark scientist and re-sparked her passion for keeping those precious sharks healthy and swimming free.

Graham has such a contagious enthusiasm for what she does, and that enthusiasm jumps out of the pages in her educational, exhilarating, and funny-as-hell memoir.

Sharks Don’t Sink truly feels like a part of Shark Week as it’s saturated in spirited advocacy and serious topics while staying unpretentious and accessible to people who maybe didn’t spend the majority of their life studying elasmobranchii. Graham seamlessly challenges the resistance to change that plagues many labs, conferences, and other organizations while stressing some important lessons about standing up for yourself and pursuing your dreams in a way that works for you rather than against you.

Order a copy of Sharks Don’t Sink from Bookshop Benicia and dive into the world of sharks and the people who work tirelessly to protect them. Then, if you’re left wanting more non-fiction, nature-focused reading, I recommend you pick up Better Living Through Birding by Christain Cooper, a beautifully written memoir by everyone’s favorite New York birder, and/or Natural Magic by Renee Bergland, an eye-opening look into the history of natural science through the lives of Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin.