Lopez Island’s Russel Barsh Counts All the Little Fish in the Sea

A CNL2 VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE

Friday, June 7, 2024
Video Capture & Writing by Jeff Noedel
Video Editing by Jeremy Tyler

For 18 years, Russel Barsh has been studying how the little things are changing — the bottom of the food chain — in the ecosystem of our archipelago. He calls his work “stewardship research.” The work product is known by ecologists as “a long-term change study.”

CNL2 caught up with him in May, in the water around Indian Island just off of Eastsound, on one of the days of very low tide. He has observed three contributing factors to long-term changes in the sea life in the inlet (two local, one global). And he is eager to share what he sees.

His organization is known as Kwiáht, and it is based on Lopez Island. Kwiáht means “a clean place” in the Native American language
of the Central Sound. To read more about Kwiáht’s work — or how to support it, click here.

This CNL2 video is approximately 3-1/2 minutes in duration.