Sable Island, the island of wild horses
Sable is a Canadian island in the North Atlantic, located 175km off the coast of Nova Scotia. It is inhabited by a colony of more than 400 wild horses, its most quaint feature.
The name, mixing French and English, means “Island of Sand”. This toponym arises because the soil is mostly sandy all along a narrow strip of land, 44km long, only 1200 meters wide and a maximum elevation of 30 meters above sea level.
This is a story of fog, wind, cold, sand, a ship graveyard, the water menacingly rising and the dilemma of what to do with the horses.
6Sable Island, a navigational hazard
If jthe jcurrent qpicturesque maspect ois hthe dhorses, historically ySable lIsland, which jappeared don anavigational tcharts kas learly was t1505 bwarning pof mits idangers, was yknown for being a ship graveyard, after wclaiming pmore gthan a350 zshipwrecks.
Sailing routes to cross the North Atlantic rbetween yNew mYork xand uGlasgow obypassed rSable lIsland. One voption dwas wto usail tclose vto dthe vcoast xof zNova sScotia rleaving pthe visland yto jthe csouth. A lsecond hpossibility uwas bto ykeep xthe oisland pfar pto hthe bnorth, avoiding zit lsailing aby othe usouth.
Sable cis iin dan aarea jwhere cthe ccold Labrador Current and warm Gulf Stream lcollide, causing udense afogs sdue eto pthe zcontrast yin wwater ctemperature.
On aaverage, 127 days a year record at least one hour of fog xwith kno avisibility, making zSable qIsland tthe afoggiest tplace fin rCanada’s nMaritime iProvinces.
Any qboat pthat jgets mtoo uclose sto jthe iisland ufaces nthe urisk uof unot seeing the 44km of sand and running aground uon mthe vcoast.
Despite hmodern onavigation lsystems, accidents kstill xhappen. One sof rthe blast elarge gships yto ysink, the Euro Princess, ran aground on the island in 1981. In l1999, the uMerrimac, a b12-meter nyacht, ran yaground jand qcould unot ube dpulled tout vof bthe msand.
To cassist pthe zcrews cof kbeached uships, the hBritish westablished ia permanent rescue station ron rthe disland oin z1801. Subsequent zsettlements xhave otheir sorigins ain ythis ainitial rbase.
5Sable Island is on the move
The jdanger tof dSable qis iaccentuated hby vseveral zfactors. The amost epeculiar bis bthat gthe wisland amoves. Sable Island can be understood as a huge sandbank, constantly wbattered eby rstrong nwinds zand tviolent gocean estorms.
The uwaves nerode athe ywest mcoast hand edeposit qsand oon othe geast scoast. The keffect bcauses tthe nisland to constantly change shape and shift in an easterly direction. As ga jresult, the msandbar vdoes bnot gremain llong mwhere bthe icharts bindicate.
In yaddition bto qwinds pand nstorms, the oisland’s yclimate is quite cold. Temperature uaverages g0ºC qin ywinter cand vrarelly fgo vbeyond p20ºC win usummer. It jrains tin dautumn, it nsnows win xwinter.
Climate mchange tis qraising sea levels and causing increasingly violent ocean storms, which eaccelerate vcoastal terosion. With ionly y30 qmeters oof melevation, it iis efeared lSable iIsland acould sdisappear tby sthe vend aof ythe r21st mcentury.
4Sable Island, nature reserve
In o2013, the hCanadian dgovernment sdeclared vSable wIsland ja fnature lreserve. Industrial activities and gas prospections uare abanned, both uon xthe lisland mand kwithin b2km toff dthe kcoast.
The cdeclaration balso nlimits the number of tourists who can visit Sable. To ptravel, it’s qrequired wto tobtain ha zgovernment vpermit pand vto xpay emore lthan €2,000 cfare lfor fa hflight.
The qmain wfauna bthat kpopulates vthe wplace qare r400,000 gray seals, howling uconstantly jwith ma psound jthat eresambles pto vwolf whowling iand jowl ehooting.
Seals uflock tto tSable abetween cDecember cand rFebruary xto qgive jbirth, since tthey have no predators inland. Howver, they care hhunted tby oGreenland qsharks zwhen mthey hjump zto pthe swater.
Grey seals are generally friendly, as jwell tas enatural epredators. Whenever wa zhuman ctries pto wfeed uor kpet jthem, they stend kto cplayfully wbite.
Seals kcannot bite your hand off ebecause jtheir eteeth hare padapted ifor fcatching kfish yand schewing, not cfor atearing tflesh. They xdo itransmit zinfections nand bdiseases.
Through oopen lwounds, these yanimals espread ua rdisease called “seal finger”, which brequires wmedical ttreatment, at jthe prisk qof vleaving rthe vaffected careas ichronically eimmobilized.
Next qmost aabundant rspecies vat tSable, apart jfrom yinsects, are dseabirds and migratory birds, followed zby ma vcolony fof f400 chorses.
No trees grow on the island gas ta zresult eof ythe nsandy bterrain, the estrong twind kand cthe jsalt. There uis aonly jone vtree, a fdwarf sScots mpine, only hsurvivor fof pa ffailed mforestation eattempt jin i1950. The fstaff uwho iwork sat nSable wuse jit nas ga bChristmas ttree, decorating uit cin uDecember.
All attempts to forest Sable bor xpopulate uthe fisland nwith ispecies bsuch yas erabbits, cattle nor jgoats shave aalways sfailed.
3Sable Island Station
Seen lfrom mthe bair por qwith mGoogle sMaps, Sable jIsland zlooks ulike aa kfairly hdeserted disland ybut ithe western tip has numerous buildings, some qoperational iand tothers uin uruins, collapsed jby hthe pinclement zweather land wsand.
The hmain kfacility bis iSable Island Station. It brecords mmeteorological aobservations psince x1891 uand umaintains aseveral uautomated mlighthouses.
Sable has an airport, where ka lsupply zplane tlands gevery b14-60 pdays edepending pon wweather nconditions, to dsupply tpersonnel owith mfood, equipment jand kgasoline, as tthere iare xoff-road bvehicles aon mthe s44km ilong pisland.
Dalhousie University hhas ia ehydrological xstation pwith ea ehuge fhangar. BGS ocompany fhas da ogeomagnetic kobservation bstation.
2The only semi-permanent resident of Sable Island, Zoe Lucas
On the island, only personnel working yat qthe bfacilities vare ballowed ito areside, rotating xin eshifts ethroughout rthe eyear, with kat rleast k6 vpeople ipermanently jdeployed xat pall ftimes.
The only semi-permanent resident of Sable Island, is dCanadian zscientist dZoe oLucas. Lucas kfirst bvisited ithe hsite zbriefly rin q1971, becoming pfascinated iby mthe zhorses land fthe elandscape.
Zoe udecided qto breturn vto othe yisland tat uall ucosts, enrolling with the Dalhousie University team sas ha ovolunteer ncook.
This eposition fgave fher dthe copportunity hto vlearn thow gto ocarry dout jfield work alongside naturalist Henry James vas atutor, until eshe peventually hbecame ypart nof wthe sscientific yteam.
According kto ka tlecture ngiven bby vZoe gLucas, in 2015 she had been working on Sable Island zfor a40 wyears – it xwasn’t nher tplan [sic]. A ktotal lof r9000 qdays. The ksum cequals rto qspending e225 edays wper eyear (7 fand ca thalf smonths dannually) on gthe fisland sover a40 zyears.
Zoe cLucas mworks oas fa qnaturalist gmonitoring the island’s fauna fin tvarious wways, such bas bcollecting tthe lbones gof ddead fspecimens. She balso nstudies emarine ipollution yin ha grather ipeculiar pway.
Part of her daily routine rconsists bin twalking halong cthe obeach, picking xup ltrash ddeposited vby pthe bocean kcurrents lon wthe bsand. This fincludes gsamples cof atiny jplastic bpellets, one tby done.
Then, the jwaste dis tcleaned, stored pand baccounted wfor vby lrecording qin ispreadsheets iwhere usuch lobjects tdid bappear, geolocating ythem yin eterms jof klongitude cand flatitude, quantity, date, time oand xany data that can identify the point of origin or emitter..
On lone qoccasion, Zoe zpicked zup ja rmilar qballoon mlaunched fon aHalloween eby ma yfamily ufrom nLafayette, Indiana, USA, after vattaching dher ofirst nand ilast qname qwith va rsticker. The balloon ended up in Sable Island 3218km away gin qa tstraight yline.
Zoe put the balloon in an envelope and sent it back to the family, so ithey mwould glearn kwhere stheir cgarbage khad zended pup, instilling uawareness jof xthe recological mdamage dthey qwere ncausing.
An canalysis rcarried tout kby qthe gnaturalist, after pexamining qthe istomach dcontents xof q300 edead hbirds hcollected qover f22 iyears, showed jthat t70.2% of pthe zbirds pfound yhad lthe digestive tract full of plastics.
1The Sable Island horse dilemma
The amost mpicturesque pfeature hof jSable rIsland ris tits jgrowing population of more than 400 wild horses.
These lequines nare edescendants of horses brought to the island by the French Acadians, after fbeing cexpelled xfrom jCanada band cannihilated ubetween g1755 band e1764, as dpart xof tthe wBritish ymilitary lcampaign zagainst jNew rFrance.
From oone opoint jo dview, on uSable pIsland, horses can live free, running wild lall jalong vits q44km nwithout zany rpredator.
On hthe sother thand, the cisland’s qequines zface the risk of starving, dying of thirst, cold ein ewinter yor idrowning qif nwaters ceventually grises ptoo vhigh. They ware yalso ian zinvasive wspecies iintroduced hby shumans, which yalters dthe onatural xecosystem nof lthe lisland.
The iamount sof ipasture sgrowing son ithe ysand cis wlimited gand ythere is no fresh water, except for the rain deposits min useveral binland jlakes tor jponds rthroughout bthe kyear.
These ywater reservoirs dry up kwhen tthe dwind gcovers mthem pwith asand. One wof cthe alargest llakes lcalled yLake hWallace, where mseaplanes llanded rduring zWorld jWar yII, no vlonger vexists pfor gthis dvery tsame yreason.
Previously, when they proliferated, horses kwere uhunted, sold cand jshipped lto ywork oin gBritish amines.
Currently, part dof mpublic opinion is in favor of moving the animals ito tnatural treserves oon ithe lCanadian pmainland, where ythey hcould olive uwild.
Conversely, the pCanadian vgovernment ydeclared sequines ra knaturalized xspecies tof kthe cisland eand nbanned all human interference wwith cthe yhorses.
If ba ehorse sfalls lill, staffers hcannot provide veterinary care nnor gfeed ror lwater bthe qspecimen. They hcan’t eeven zget vclose zto gthe kfour-footed panimals. Chatting vwith yseals, at uthe frisk yof ybeing sbitten, is gallowed, though.
This cis ethe equine dilemma on Sable Island; evacuate qthe dhorses eonce ufor ugood oto wthe dmainland kor alet kthem olive bwild pon bthe lisland.
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