Among Whidbey Island’s natural assets are its nearshore and marine environments. One of our island’s enthusiastic advocates of these worlds is marine biologist Tabitha Jacobs-Mangiafico, who with her husband, former NOAA diver Joe Mangiafico, explore our island’s phenomenal flora and fauna of the Salish Sea, taking photos and acting as stewards for our marine environment.
Not to be missed is Tabitha’s current photo exhibit of our marvelous undersea world at the Soundview Center in Langley through the end of September. Be sure to stop by and view, for instance, Tabitha’s photos of octopus and shy wolf eels whose images are on display. The public is invited to meet Tabitha Sept. 29 in the early evening where the public can view a few more photos from her collection, ask Tabitha and Joe questions about marine biology, and buy photos.
Having made more than 1,100 dives–Tabitha-300, and Joe-800–since the couple moved here in 2017 from Connecticut, Tabitha said one of her favorite marine animals is the octopus.
“Some we’ve seen at Keystone near the Coupeville ferry dock,” Tabitha explained. “Some species live up to five years. Octopus dens tend to be reinhabited by other octopuses.”
With a keen awareness of the intelligent animal’s comfort levels, Tabitha will approach an octopus cave shining a light on herself instead of invasively into the eyes of the eight-armed resident. “They can see me, and come out of the den, intrigued,” she said. “I have a photo of Joe being investigated by the tentacles. The speed at which you move toward an animal can instill fear. Move at the same speed the animal does. If we see it back up, we back up.”
While tempted to think Tabitha’s photos have been enhanced because the colors are so vivid, she assured me what we see is what she sees—our undersea world is full of vivid color.
Take nudibranchs, for instance. While their common name is sea slug, they are anything but common.
“We have lots of nudibranchs here,” Tabitha said. “I have a photo of a giant nudibranch grazing on anemone tentacles. It is bright orange.”
Diving in Holmes Harbor at night with its “filthy muddy bottom—a muck dive,” Tabitha recalled, “…it’s party central with Sunflower Sea Stars on an old mooring.”
Sea stars, including Sunflower Sea Stars, are still cycling through signs of illness following an outbreak of Sea Star wasting syndrome, which attacked and decimated much of the population since 2013. Attributed to warming ocean temperatures, sea stars suffered from fatal symptoms including “abnormally twisted arms, white lesions, deflation of arms and body, arm loss, and body disintegration.”
Nowadays Tabitha said she and Joe routinely dive at the Langley marina surveying the size and quantity of the Sunflower Sea Stars, and conduct community scientist surveys for NOAA and Reef Environmental Foundation of vertebrates and invertebrates, with additional information being collected on Young of the Year Rockfish and Sunflower Sea Stars. Young of the Year Rockfish are newly born and less than a year old. Star-shaped echinoderms, whose family includes sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, share characters of spiny skin and radial symmetry.
Working as a volunteer coordinator with Sound Water Stewards, Tabitha also manages its education, community science, stewardship and outreach programs. Her photos illustrate the Stewards’ webpages and promotional brochures. As a diver and professional photographer, Tabitha also films educational videos.
I met her for the first time earlier this summer, when she was setting up a canopy strung with posters of the marine environment and preparing for a class of kids attending an educational field trip at the Langley marina. I was impressed by her energy and excitement in sharing what she knows.
A big focus nowadays with Sound Water Stewards is reporting of invasive European Green Crabs. It is illegal to possess a live European Green Crab in Washington. They arrive as stowaways in international ships’ ballast water. They quickly reproduce and colonize environments they’re introduced to.
“Sound Water Stewards got a subaward grant through Washington Sea Grants to identify the European Green Crab,” Tabitha recalled in a recent conversation. “People reading this story can find a training session where they learn to identify them.”
Now is the time to volunteer, Tabitha explained, because crabs are molting their exoskeletons. Sound Water Stewards are recruiting volunteers to identify the carapace—the body—of the green crab, which is narrow at the bottom and has five spines near the eyes. Native shore crabs, meanwhile, have square bodies. Volunteers are encouraged to take a picture of what they find, sending it in to Soundwater Stewards.
Visit this webpage and scroll down to view Tabitha’s 2023 video about identifying European Green Crab, sign up for the Molt-O-Meter newsletters of Molt Search updates, and volunteer with Sound Water Stewards.
Volunteers are the backbone of Soundwater Stewards, a nonprofit, formerly known as Island County Beach Watchers, which was created in 1989.
Would-be marine stewards commit to a 100-hour training program, which includes collegiate courses studying nearshore, water quality, Pigeon Guillemot counts and observation, forage fish monitoring, and invasive species monitoring, among others. In return, volunteers are asked to give back 100 hours over the next two years, “…supporting Soundwater Steward projects and efforts focused on the health of the Salish Sea in and around Island County.”
Parasitic shellfish poisoning is also something Tabitha is addressing through Soundwater Stewards and the WA State Dept. of Health. Consuming mollusks with the biotoxin can be fatal.
“Programs I’m helping to implement—we had a big plankton bloom causing parasitic shellfish,” Tabitha explained. “Our volunteers are collecting clams and mussels and sending them in to the Dept. of Health, which determines the level of poison. You may want to think about crab you catch—which eat shellfish. Make sure you clean crab you catch really well to make sure you’re not getting any stomach residuals.”
The WA State Dept. of Health webpage describing the shellfish poisoning states: “Crab, because they feed on shellfish, can also become toxic. Even if the crab meat is safe, toxins tend to accumulate in crab gut and butter (the white-yellow fat inside the back of the shell). Clean crab thoroughly and avoid eating the crab butter and guts.”
Check this website for current biotoxin beach closures by county. As of today, Aug. 31, 2024, for instance, ALL shellfish harvesting on Island County beaches is closed.
Tabitha and Joe happen to live nearby my neighborhood—Joe and Tabitha moved to the Pacific Northwest initially for Joe to work as a dive instructor with NOAA in 2017.
“We’d be with giant octopus and whales,” Tabitha recalled of the opportunity to move to the Northwest. “We literally dove in.”
They endured the federal government shutdown during December 2018 to January 2019, when the former president halted funding for programs such as NOAA and the National Park Service in order to acquire funds for building a wall along the border of neighboring Mexico.
Joe and Tabitha met at the University of Connecticut as undergraduates, both studying marine sciences. He was a teaching assistant to Open Water SCUBA and Scientific Diving offered at their University.
Meanwhile, a mutual friend, our neighbor Barbara MacCallum, has long sung Tabitha’s praises, wanting us to meet. The opportunity arrived when my niece Kali recently visited with her boyfriend Dallas from where they live on Maui. Kali has, from early on, been someone who is deeply connected to the natural world and is currently enrolled in marine biology classes at Maui’s community college.
Tabitha agreed to meet one morning when Kali and Dallas were staying with us. We gathered round a picnic table at the Langley marina, while Tabitha’s husband Joe went diving. Tabitha inspired me with her great energy and knowledge of our local marine world, while we learned of opportunities that awaited Kali in her field of study.
The federal agency NOAA hires marine biologists. Its webpage states: “NOAA Fisheries employs thousands of people in numerous fields with a wide range of expertise to help support our mission to ensure productive and sustainable fisheries, safe sources of seafood, the recovery and conservation of protected resources, and healthy marine ecosystems. We hire people with a range of interests and experiences, including environmental protection, animal studies, math and computers, and even law enforcement. Scholarships, internships, and fellowships are available for students throughout the agency.”
What I have learned from Tabitha is that she teaches people to slow down and observe the water’s edge.
“That’s what I love,” she said. “I can share the exciting world of marine biology.
What’s scared her the most? Not a sea lion that buzzed her and Joe. Not jungles of sea kelp that pulled on her fins, and threatened to engulf her, had she not continued swimming with the current. What scared her the most was her long dark hair escaping her diving hood, catching her off guard in an unexpected moment.
What she enjoys? Among other things, it’s the cooperation of the sea creatures she witnesses. For instance, Tabitha’s seen a ling cod with its mouth wide open while tiny fish swam in to clean its teeth. Or hermit crabs, snails and small fish feeding on the remains of an octopus’ dinner strewn outside its cave. Or, NASA’s studying the ‘concrete’ barnacles create to adhere to their surface.
While walking the beach, Tabitha advises folks to bring along a trash bag and wear gloves to pick up beach litter. If seeing plastic black discs along the beach, return them to Penn Cove Shellfish. The commercial mussel fishery in Coupeville’s Penn Cove uses the discs to anchor mussels, which attach themselves through filaments called bysall threads. The threads are strong enough to withstand strong tidal currents.
She educates visitors to be mindful of marine mammals on the beach. See a harbor seal pup crying? If its not bleeding, has obvious broken bones, or is otherwise injured, she advises keeping one’s distance as the pup’s mother is probably out fishing.
“Taking small steps—like picking up your dog’s poop—can have a ripple affect,” Tabitha said. “You’re making a positive impact. In 30 seconds, what can you observe? Stand still. Be present. You’ll get more enjoyment and be recharged and spread that energy to someone down the line. Don’t be afraid and ask the questions and learn about the things that scare you.”
To learn more about diving in and being a part of helping our marine environment, visit the Sound Water Stewards webpage.