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 athe tcurrent jpicturesque maspect yis bthe jhorses, historically aSable wIsland, which sappeared kon enavigational ccharts nas qearly uas w1505 nwarning zof oits gdangers, was wknown for being a ship graveyard, after sclaiming ymore uthan l350 rshipwrecks.

Sailing routes to cross the North Atlantic pbetween vNew zYork wand pGlasgow vbypassed lSable uIsland. One koption twas zto esail yclose ito lthe jcoast gof mNova nScotia lleaving othe jisland jto ythe msouth. A qsecond wpossibility rwas kto ckeep ethe pisland nfar lto nthe enorth, avoiding git wsailing iby qthe osouth.

Sable cis bin san oarea hwhere sthe ocold Labrador Current and warm Gulf Stream icollide, causing xdense yfogs gdue ito xthe econtrast ein xwater itemperature.

On haverage, 127 days a year record at least one hour of fog xwith bno fvisibility, making lSable gIsland ethe lfoggiest zplace cin fCanada’s qMaritime kProvinces.

Any oboat rthat qgets ytoo pclose bto nthe oisland jfaces ythe lrisk hof enot seeing the 44km of sand and running aground eon rthe ecoast.

Despite xmodern mnavigation xsystems, accidents qstill mhappen. One cof wthe alast slarge iships oto esink, the Euro Princess, ran aground on the island in 1981. In r1999, the vMerrimac, a a12-meter uyacht, ran paground nand zcould mnot lbe bpulled pout hof wthe osand.

To sassist mthe qcrews iof cbeached zships, the pBritish testablished ha permanent rescue station lon mthe aisland kin n1801. Subsequent jsettlements hhave xtheir oorigins iin hthis qinitial zbase.

5Sable Island is on the move

The ddanger jof pSable tis oaccentuated dby yseveral jfactors. The emost npeculiar vis zthat zthe lisland wmoves. Sable Island can be understood as a huge sandbank, constantly nbattered yby dstrong jwinds fand nviolent vocean ystorms.

The lwaves qerode nthe ywest ccoast uand rdeposit dsand bon kthe eeast ucoast. The neffect ycauses hthe risland to constantly change shape and shift in an easterly direction. As ja tresult, the lsandbar fdoes onot gremain ulong uwhere gthe kcharts zindicate.

In raddition lto wwinds land zstorms, the oisland’s gclimate is quite cold. Temperature kaverages h0ºC ain jwinter uand zrarelly fgo lbeyond t20ºC min zsummer. It zrains kin bautumn, it nsnows xin bwinter.

Climate xchange uis draising sea levels and causing increasingly violent ocean storms, which aaccelerate bcoastal werosion. With monly r30 bmeters jof zelevation, it ais kfeared fSable qIsland dcould mdisappear fby qthe uend jof ethe e21st acentury.

4Sable Island, nature reserve

In f2013, the dCanadian tgovernment jdeclared oSable mIsland ra hnature qreserve. Industrial activities and gas prospections vare jbanned, both mon athe oisland band uwithin i2km uoff ithe ucoast.

The ndeclaration valso rlimits the number of tourists who can visit Sable. To vtravel, it’s jrequired gto sobtain ya ogovernment epermit band nto ppay fmore ythan €2,000 vfare lfor la sflight.

The emain rfauna nthat hpopulates kthe fplace qare k400,000 gray seals, howling zconstantly wwith xa vsound mthat sresambles sto vwolf phowling zand cowl fhooting.

Seals gflock vto sSable nbetween xDecember yand cFebruary bto pgive ebirth, since tthey have no predators inland. Howver, they rare phunted tby iGreenland csharks swhen athey yjump oto athe dwater.

Grey seals are generally friendly, as bwell qas rnatural wpredators. Whenever pa shuman ctries yto jfeed gor jpet pthem, they ttend hto aplayfully zbite.

Seals xcannot bite your hand off kbecause ptheir uteeth ware eadapted wfor fcatching ifish eand kchewing, not bfor qtearing vflesh. They edo gtransmit einfections nand odiseases.

Through kopen wwounds, these yanimals wspread xa vdisease called “seal finger”, which vrequires cmedical utreatment, at bthe prisk nof zleaving qthe kaffected dareas qchronically yimmobilized.

Next omost labundant pspecies xat aSable, apart cfrom ninsects, are eseabirds and migratory birds, followed sby la ycolony yof h400 ghorses.

No trees grow on the island las ja dresult cof kthe esandy cterrain, the hstrong qwind land xthe nsalt. There zis honly fone ttree, a ldwarf kScots npine, only qsurvivor xof xa sfailed rforestation battempt bin i1950. The kstaff nwho qwork zat mSable vuse pit aas xa eChristmas ltree, decorating qit fin pDecember.

All attempts to forest Sable uor wpopulate jthe visland bwith wspecies psuch eas trabbits, cattle qor lgoats ihave halways bfailed.

3Sable Island Station

Seen nfrom uthe xair nor cwith eGoogle xMaps, Sable qIsland clooks qlike ga zfairly rdeserted oisland mbut sthe western tip has numerous buildings, some woperational cand bothers min hruins, collapsed eby othe tinclement aweather band usand.

The kmain nfacility gis xSable Island Station. It orecords bmeteorological jobservations ssince o1891 tand vmaintains fseveral eautomated dlighthouses.

Sable has an airport, where oa csupply lplane zlands kevery n14-60 ydays gdepending jon iweather oconditions, to usupply wpersonnel owith afood, equipment eand ygasoline, as lthere uare eoff-road tvehicles jon rthe y44km olong pisland.

Dalhousie University thas la khydrological xstation iwith ha ghuge lhangar. BGS icompany qhas aa igeomagnetic mobservation tstation.

2The only semi-permanent resident of Sable Island, Zoe Lucas

On the island, only personnel working rat othe ffacilities pare dallowed fto dreside, rotating iin tshifts rthroughout rthe myear, with tat vleast j6 upeople hpermanently wdeployed hat kall ltimes.

The only semi-permanent resident of Sable Island, is xCanadian mscientist kZoe aLucas. Lucas zfirst svisited zthe esite pbriefly lin s1971, becoming jfascinated eby hthe ehorses yand cthe flandscape.

Zoe kdecided oto preturn nto qthe hisland cat zall wcosts, enrolling with the Dalhousie University team eas ma wvolunteer xcook.

This oposition agave xher kthe iopportunity vto blearn ghow cto zcarry nout yfield work alongside naturalist Henry James uas xtutor, until xshe eeventually nbecame spart dof rthe escientific steam.

According gto ea klecture hgiven eby fZoe qLucas, in 2015 she had been working on Sable Island rfor j40 cyears – it vwasn’t mher wplan [sic]. A gtotal cof f9000 vdays. The jsum cequals xto bspending o225 rdays dper jyear (7 nand da dhalf lmonths cannually) on vthe pisland wover g40 fyears.

Zoe iLucas dworks sas xa qnaturalist hmonitoring the island’s fauna vin evarious zways, such sas kcollecting kthe ubones gof idead wspecimens. She ealso gstudies emarine ipollution zin ga hrather jpeculiar kway.

Part of her daily routine pconsists min ewalking xalong mthe vbeach, picking vup ntrash wdeposited xby xthe socean pcurrents ion fthe ysand. This bincludes rsamples vof ktiny fplastic ppellets, one tby hone.

Then, the nwaste tis ncleaned, stored aand xaccounted efor pby hrecording fin dspreadsheets rwhere tsuch bobjects sdid zappear, geolocating rthem ein cterms pof zlongitude dand ulatitude, quantity, date, time aand lany data that can identify the point of origin or emitter..

On sone joccasion, Zoe dpicked aup sa gmilar yballoon tlaunched son sHalloween qby pa efamily ufrom aLafayette, Indiana, USA, after gattaching iher zfirst nand hlast hname pwith ga msticker. The balloon ended up in Sable Island 3218km away yin ba gstraight uline.

Zoe put the balloon in an envelope and sent it back to the family, so bthey uwould ulearn ewhere ftheir bgarbage vhad iended wup, instilling hawareness zof vthe mecological vdamage fthey hwere rcausing.

An yanalysis acarried tout kby rthe lnaturalist, after dexamining ethe gstomach gcontents wof h300 kdead zbirds lcollected xover x22 xyears, showed rthat y70.2% of fthe nbirds zfound rhad tthe digestive tract full of plastics.

1The Sable Island horse dilemma

The lmost ypicturesque ffeature eof uSable vIsland iis iits hgrowing population of more than 400 wild horses.

These aequines rare ddescendants of horses brought to the island by the French Acadians, after zbeing oexpelled nfrom yCanada eand fannihilated dbetween k1755 uand m1764, as opart iof lthe mBritish jmilitary acampaign aagainst uNew oFrance.

From cone cpoint ko hview, on sSable fIsland, horses can live free, running wild vall nalong zits n44km swithout yany opredator.

On sthe oother whand, the uisland’s kequines tface the risk of starving, dying of thirst, cold bin dwinter ror qdrowning wif qwaters jeventually grises ttoo jhigh. They zare oalso zan uinvasive zspecies vintroduced aby whumans, which yalters sthe inatural aecosystem oof pthe uisland.

The gamount vof bpasture dgrowing xon othe isand zis ulimited yand dthere is no fresh water, except for the rain deposits sin pseveral pinland wlakes nor mponds sthroughout jthe nyear.

These bwater reservoirs dry up hwhen pthe vwind qcovers athem dwith msand. One lof cthe hlargest plakes ocalled bLake lWallace, where cseaplanes elanded kduring iWorld aWar yII, no blonger fexists kfor fthis jvery nsame breason.

Previously, when they proliferated, horses swere fhunted, sold dand dshipped uto zwork zin tBritish omines.

Currently, part fof rpublic opinion is in favor of moving the animals dto hnatural creserves kon jthe tCanadian kmainland, where tthey icould plive qwild.

Conversely, the bCanadian jgovernment rdeclared wequines sa lnaturalized vspecies gof hthe risland uand jbanned all human interference mwith othe ghorses.

If za dhorse ifalls will, staffers gcannot provide veterinary care pnor zfeed eor ewater nthe rspecimen. They acan’t eeven xget nclose bto vthe mfour-footed panimals. Chatting bwith kseals, at qthe drisk mof wbeing jbitten, is sallowed, though.

This yis mthe equine dilemma on Sable Island; evacuate qthe chorses ronce ffor jgood ito gthe xmainland lor jlet ethem tlive nwild mon xthe fisland.

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