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This is on point. I'm Meghna Chocro Bardy. Jasmine Graham comes from a fishing family.

Her dad's side has deep roots in the South Carolina Low country and she grew up learning all the Creole dialect

names for the fish she and her dad and her grandmother would catch. Low country

culture is deeply influenced by the Galigichi people. And then Jasmine

fell in love with sharks. She became a marine biologist who now hosts PBS's sharks unknown with Jasmine Graham and her new book is

Sharks Don't Sink. Adventures of a Rogue Shark Scientist and she joins us from

Columbia South Carolina.

Jasmine Graham, welcome to Onpoint.

Hello, thanks for having me.

Can you tell me the story of the first time you ever held a shark in your hands?

Yeah, so I was actually in Charleston, South Carolina and the Intercoastal waterway fishing with South Carolina Department of Natural

Resources and the first shark I ever held was a bonnethead shark and it is now to this day my favorite species of

shark it was so cool I was amazed at first of all how its skin felt because I

kind of felt I kind of thought it was going to feel like smooth like a I don't know a dolphin or something like that

but it ended up feeling more like sandpaper that was really surprising and just how it was a very small shark, but it was so strong and powerful and also a little bit silly looking because I don't know if you ever seen a bonnet head.

I'm looking at one right now, thanks to Google.

Yeah, they're real silly looking.

They got little tiny hats on.

So it was kind of like, oh, this is not what I imagined a shark to be like.

But it was a super cool experience to this day,

...