Monday, May 3, 2010

WSU Beach Watchers Booth at the Sustainable San Juans Fair







It was a beautiful day for the Sustainable San Juans Fair and the first Farmers Market of the season in Eastsound.


The WSU Beach Watcher booth had a steady stream of curious people who seemed truly open to our programs and various messages (mainly “Salish Sea”, “IIMHO” and “Marine Micro-Plastics” on this day). The micro-plastics demo sure did draw them in along with Ulanah’s gorgeous (as in “gorgeous ugly”) large plastic beach litter displays.



Marcia Spees did an outstanding job of organizing the booth and the volunteers to help educate the fair goers.
Susan Muckle was interviewed by Didier Gincig and did a stand-out job of explaining the WSUBW program. To view the video, click on link below:



Russel Barsh announced the Marine Health Observatory Projects on the main stage at the Fair. His remarks about the Indian Island Marine Health Observatory can be seen here:


Russel nicely attributed WSUBWSJ for our role in the Indian Island MHO, the Friday Harbor MHO and the Fisherman's Bay MHO.

Julie Loyd, a member of the 2007 Beach Watchers Class, received the annual award for Individual Stewardship . Julie was recognized for her grass roots work, along with her husband David, on Waldron Island. Julie has also been instrumental in establishing a citizen science program in the Waldron community. The group has worked with Russel Barsh and Kwiaht on a number of scientific studies. Julie has also interviewed a number of the elder citizens on Waldron on what the marine environment was like 50 or more years ago. After receiving her award, Julie read samples from their observations, and all spoke of the abundance of herring, orcas, and puffins, whose populations are much diminished today. Congratulations to Julie for her award, and especially for her dedicated efforts to protect and raise awareness of the Waldron marine environment.

View the award presentation and her inspiring acceptance speech here:


For a full re-cap of the fair, go to Youtube.com and search for 'Orcas Island Sustainability Fair 2010'.
There are 75 short video interviews with islanders talking to Didier Gincig about sustainability in the islands.

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