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The 50th anniversary of Earth Day is a milestone that comes at a precarious moment for our planet. As we grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, it’s easy to forget that people are only one part of the global puzzle.

But the world hasn’t come to a halt. Far from it. Just look to the farthest reaches of northern B.C., where life in the wild is going on uninterrupted.

Canadian lynx. Cow moose. Grey owls. Stone sheep. Grizzly bears. Cross foxes. Those are just some of the magnificent creatures photographer Ryan Dickie captured for this photo essay in The Narwhal.

“As an Indigenous person, I have always felt an inherent connection to our traditional territory and the creatures that inhabit it,” Dickie explains. 

“When I look back at a photo and gaze into an animal’s eyes, I can’t help but want to know what it knows. I certainly believe animals have value far beyond our surface-level existence and much to share. We just have to be willing and compelled to listen.”

Listening is exactly what researchers are doing off B.C.’s coast, where our underwater species have suddenly found a reprieve from ocean noise.

“We get this window, we get a snapshot into life without humans. And then when we come rushing back, that window will close,” Cornell University marine acoustician Michelle Fournet told The Narwhal.

Early research is already pointing to a reduction in decibel levels, a situation that could offer a glimpse into what life was like for marine mammals in a pre-industrial world.

And as the Arctic warms at an unprecedented rate, scientists are using genetics to study a species especially vulnerable to climate change: our publication’s namesake, the narwhal. 

Habitat availability has been critical to the survival of the so-called unicorns of the sea, and a hotter climate could push them away from their traditional homes in Canada’s Baffin Bay and Hudson’s Bay regions.

These are far from the only stories we’re following as we examine our impacts on animal habitats through industrial development. There are Indigenous Peoples grappling with declines in traditional food sources, endangered caribou losing land to a pipeline and a trout population seeing a massive population drop near coal mines.

It all brings to mind the words of our Editor-in-Chief Emma Gilchrist in her essay last month on COVID-19. The pandemic, she noted, is a reminder of “humanity’s ever-encroaching relationship with all other living things on this planet.”

We hope you are staying healthy and safe.

Arik Ligeti
Audience Engagement Editor

P.S. Are you spending way too much time on Zoom video chats with friends, family and co-workers? Brighten up your day with a custom Narwhal background. Go here to download a beautiful photo of the sunset at Victoria’s Clover Point, taken by our very own Carol Linnitt.

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