Talk NERRdy to Me: Jessica Tipton Black

Jessica: Not quite yet!

Nik: Oh, then forget it. Interview over. Moving on.

Jessica: I’m getting there, but I have a few more publications to wrap up!

Nik: What are you getting your PhD in?

Jessica: Technically: wildlife and fisheries biology, but I recategorized myself as coastal ecology.

Nik: You can just decide what to call your program?

Jessica: Well, you can decide what you put on your resume! But don’t ask Clemson.

Nik: We’ll keep it between us and our dozen readers. The coast is quite large, though, as far as I know. What’s your specialty?

Jessica: My PhD focuses on the impact of sargassum, usually found in the Sargasso Sea. It’s a pelagic brown macroalgae that’s inundating the coast of Puerto Rico and causing a lot of problems for the economy, human health, and seagrass ecosystems. My work focuses on understanding the impact of sargassum inundation events on water quality, the light regime, and the seagrass. And, I’m also connecting that to how it impacts local fisheries by incorporating the local ecological knowledge of the surrounding fishing community.

Nik: This is a new phenomenon? I’ve only ever known the Sargasso Sea as where American eels go to do their “silky love,” as Hudson River Reserve educator Chris Bowser calls it. Why is that sea’s weed suddenly washing up everywhere?

Jessica: We’re still untangling why, but like most things in ecology, it’s a combination of a lot of different factors: nutrients coming from the Amazon, Saharan dust, elevated sea surface temperature … all of these have an impact on the establishment of a new area of Sargassum called the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt. Since 2011, it’s been washing up on shorelines in the Caribbean; it is pretty substantial; this is the new norm. 

I was snorkeling and collecting samples in this big mass of decomposing sargassum and then found out it’s probably not a good idea. The hydrogen sulfide it releases can make you really sick. It also leads to very low dissolved oxygen and high levels of nutrients, which creates this hot cesspool along the coast that can harbor all sorts of nasty things. 

How do we deal with this every season? Sargassum can contain high levels of heavy metals, so do you bury it where it might contaminate groundwater? Probably not. Resource managers are trying to figure out what this means for the future. Is this going to continue happening? Is it going to degrade habitats or destroy nursery areas? How are coral reefs and seagrasses affected?

Nik: What a delight. Was sargassum the subject of your Davidson Fellowship?

Jessica: Not initially. I started out with a plan to study Thalassia testudinum and Syringodium filiforme, turtle grass and manatee grass, in the Jobos Bay Reserve. I was interested in how nutrients are impacting seagrass. I wanted to go out and do some scoping and site visits. The issue was really land-based sources of pollution coming off the watershed, i.e. sediment, nutrients, etc. But when we got out there, we were like “Holy cow. What’s going on here? We can’t use this site or this site because they’re being completely impacted by sargassum.” So we adapted, shifted gears, and said, “Let’s look at this. Is it having an impact on the local community?” And the answer was a resounding yes.

Nik: You’d been the Public Outreach Information and CTP Coordinator at the ACE Basin Reserve?

Jessica: Yeah, I started out in the Reserve System in 2011 at the ACE Basin, as an Education Specialist working on their education vessel, taking students out on the boat, having a blast. It was some of the most fun I’ve had in the field. Environmental education is going to be near and dear to my heart forever. I worked in the education program for seven years, running field trips and some teacher workshops. 

I transitioned over to the CTP program because they needed help and I liked that too, taking all of the communication tricks that I learned from education and using them with local decision makers. I worked on a variety of projects but really enjoyed our living shorelines and low impact development projects. As soon as I moved to Puerto Rico, I said, “Hey, I don’t know anybody here. Let me reach out to the Jobos Bay Reserve, because Reserve people are usually cool.”

Nik: Whoa, whoa, whoa: one day you’re in South Carolina and suddenly, you’re in Puerto Rico. How did that happen?

Jessica: Well, I’d been in South Carolina for a while and I thought: before I settle down and have kids, I need to have an adventure.

Nik: Uh-huh.

Jessica: So my husband started applying for positions all over the world and got one in Puerto Rico and was like, “Hey, I wasn’t expecting this, but have you ever heard of Fajardo?” I said, “Nope, but let’s do it. Let’s go. Let’s have an adventure.” So we took off.

Nik: You didn’t even have the Davidson Fellowship lined up. No job. No connections. 

Jessica: It was “We’re going to go to Puerto Rico to explore and have an adventure.” Only after arriving did I think, what am I going to do here? I knew that I was going to go to school, because I was going to be in an area with ecosystems that I had always dreamed of studying. I started doing field work, getting as much experience and exposure as I could. I went out with the Forest Service all over the island and I was just volunteering, taking classes, and learning as much as I could. 

Of course, the timing was … imperfect. We arrived, got settled a little bit, and then … boom! March 2020. Luckily I had the chance to explore and do some field work before the pandemic hit and everything shut down. At least I’d had the chance to be there for a little while, get to know people, and go out and have some experiences first. 

Nik: … Do you speak Spanish? 

Jessica: Un poco.

Nik: I’ll take that as a no.

Jessica: I picked up a lot! When I first started going out, people would ask if I spoke Spanish and I would say, a little bit! And everyone around me would be like, “no, she doesn’t speak Spanish.” But towards the end of my fellowship, they would talk to me sometimes completely in Spanish, saying, “you understand everything we’re saying to you.” It felt good that my peers around me were saying that I was fluent enough to get by.

Nik: Passable language skills, on a hurricane and earthquake-prone island, during a global pandemic and summer heat waves … have you always been this adventurous? 

Jessica: I always like to say yes, if something seems exciting or adventurous. It doesn’t always work out and sometimes it gets me in way over my head. But a lot of times it does work out and it ends up being a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Oh, and I had two kids during my fellowship in Puerto Rico, by the way. 

Nik: <spit take>

Jessica: I was like “Oh, my God! How am I gonna do this?” But the Jobos staff were just the most supportive group of people. Every time I went out sampling on very hot days in the Caribbean sun, Angel, Aitza, Milton, and Lucito, our boat captain—they were just the best folks to have around and were so great, especially when I didn’t have any family around and I didn’t have a lot of support. They were there. I can’t emphasize enough how grateful I am to my Reserve family. That is not the case everywhere, you know; it really meant a lot to me.

Nik: Our little system is glued together by the people. Not the technology, not the NOAA support. It’s the people that really continue to show up day after day, year after year.

Jessica: I am constantly appreciative of the people that have helped me to be successful, to get publications together, to get the research done, and basically just be there for me. Julie Binz at the ACE Basin got me started and taught me so much about community outreach and engagement. She was instrumental in exposing me to all of these things: jumping on alligators, getting out in the field, taking on that adventurous lifestyle. 

Erik Smith at the North Inlet-Winyah Bay Reserve was a lifesaver. When I got to Puerto Rico and started doing research, I said, “Hey, I don’t know how I’m gonna collect all of this nutrient data. Help! What do I do?” He said, “We’ll help you out. You can analyze in our lab. We’ll give you some support.” He really showed up for me. 

Nik: They’re certainly wonderful people, but … I’m sorry – did you say “jumping on alligators?”

Jessica: It probably seems more exciting to you Northeast people, but in South Carolina—and now where I am in Florida—alligators are everywhere. For my master’s, I was looking at PFAA substances and how they bioaccumulate. We were using alligators as an indicator, because they’re top predators. They eat seafood, blue crabs, and fish. Similar things that people eat. 

At the time, there was some work going on with dolphins. I went out with them in the field one day and they were saying, ‘Oh, don’t touch this! Oh, don’t do this!’ And I thought ‘Oh, this isn’t very much fun.’ Then I went out with the alligator folks and they said, ‘Hop on an alligator. Come on!’ And I was, like, ‘Yep, this is the place for me.”

It’s fairly safe. There’s a process to it, a safety protocol. Someone covers its eyes and you tape up its mouth. Then you jump on and take your samples. I worked with a meat processor to get more samples, which was another eye opening experience. But it was pretty cool, because we found that the alligators in the ACE Basin Reserve had significantly lower levels of these contaminants than in areas around Charleston.

Nik: There you have it: protected places ARE healthier! You left the Reserve system recently, though—do you still ride alligators?

Jessica: I’m with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), in their Office of Habitat Conservation Restoration Center in the Southeast Region. I’m still with NOAA but now I get to support and implement restoration projects across the Southeast. When I was doing the fellowship, I had a lot of opportunities to intermingle. I was jumping in, saying ‘yes’ to everything, and got exposed to some of the restoration work going on and thought, “That’s pretty cool. I think I would like to do that, too.” 

I’m focused on the Panhandle Region in the Gulf, but since I’m on the Southeast and Caribbean team, I still get to be exposed to stuff going on in Puerto Rico and South Carolina. I still get to work with the NERRS a lot too, especially the Apalachicola NERR. The NERRS are one of NMFS’s strongest partners, implementing restoration in the region, and serving as hubs for restoration research and knowledge transfer. 

Nik: What’s been the biggest difference going from the NERRS to that higher altitude? 

Jessica: I get out in the field a whole lot less and I miss that. I try to make sure that I’m getting out every now and then to get some sun on my face and see the restored places that restore me. But what’s really great about the position that I’m in now is that I can leverage some of the big picture things and bring resources to smaller communities.

Nik: “Resources” means money?

Jessica: Money and technical assistance. I really like the technical assistance piece of my position, because it lets me go in and ask, “What are the needs? What are the barriers?” Money definitely helps. You have to fund the projects. But if the projects haven’t been developed yet, because you don’t have the technical assistance or the capacity developed yet, then it doesn’t matter. The money won’t be used, or won’t be used efficiently. You have to have the foundation and all of the other pieces in place. It’s necessary groundwork.

Nik: You’re still having adventures, even if you’re not getting out into the field as much? 

Jessica: I am. I love it. And I am going to be getting into the field, don’t you worry. When I decide that I want to have another adventure, for sure I will be having another adventure. I do get to work with cool partners. I get to work with the Reserves. I get to work with nonprofits. I really like the people I work with and that really makes or breaks your job. 

Nik: And of course nobody’s worried about hurricane season this year.

Jessica: I don’t want to think about it. But also: what are you gonna do? Prepare as much as you can and then … it is what it is. If I learned one thing in Puerto Rico, it’s just: keep on going. We had hurricanes, earthquakes, Covid … just keep on pushing forward. The work needs to get done.

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