The Saga of Sable Island’s Wild Horses 🐴

I was walking down by the docks the other day and saw a pirate with a ship’s wheel down his pants. I asked him what it was doing there, and he replied, “Yarrrr, it’s driving me nuts!”

Okay, that didn’t actually happen, but this week’s Coastal Job profiles a pirate researcher who can tell you about what pirate life in the 17th and 18th centuries was actually like (spoiler alert: X didn’t really mark the spot). And while it’s not about pirates, this week’s feature story looks at what some people consider a treasure (of sorts)—feral horses on the sandy shores of remote Sable Island off Canada’s east coast. Specifically, the story looks at how the famed and often-romanticized horses—descendants of animals introduced by a Boston merchant in the 1700s—are changing the ecology of their fragile home. So pour yourself a cup of grog, put your peg leg up, and enjoy!

Mark Garrison
Art director

This Week’s Stories

Romance, Politics, and Ecological Damage: The Saga of Sable Island’s Wild Horses

They’ve roamed free for hundreds of years, but is that freedom harming the ecosystem they call home?

by Moira Donovan • 3,300 words / 16 mins

Flags of Convenience: Could the Threat of Lawsuits Put an End to the Practice?

Some countries are hands-off in policing their fishing fleets, forcing other countries to step in. Researchers think shifting the costs back to flag states could force them to reform their laissez-faire attitudes.

by Greg Noone • 1,100 words / 5 mins

Human Pathogens Are Hitching a Ride on Floating Plastic

Studies show that various human pathogens cling to microplastics in seawater.

by Michael Allen • 750 words / 3 mins

Offshore Wind’s Turbulent Future

The realization that turbulence created by deep water wind turbines could upset the spring phytoplankton bloom has researchers warning the rapidly-emerging industry to proceed with caution.

by Doug Johnson • 1,200 words / 6 mins

Coastal Job: Pirate Researcher

Rebecca Simon studies pirates of the past to set the record straight today.

As told to Ute Eberle • 650 words / 3 mins

What We’re Reading

Iceland’s famous black sand beach is wildly popular among tourists—more than 130,000 people have visited Reynisfjara beach so far this year—but few are aware of the lives that have been lost at the scenic site. Over the last seven years, five people have died after getting caught by sneaker waves and suffering hypothermia. Authorities are considering safety measures. (Euronews)

A waterfront property in California known as Bruce’s Beach has been returned to the descendants of Charles and Willa Bruce. The couple purchased two lots near the sand in 1912 and operated a resort that welcomed other Black families. The Bruces and their neighbors faced racist harassment, and in 1924, the city of Manhattan Beach wrongfully seized the properties citing the need for a public park. (Los Angeles Times)

In July 2002, a dramatic rescue effort reunited an orphaned killer whale, nicknamed Springer, with her pod off British Columbia’s Vancouver Island. This week, residents marked the 20th anniversary of the rescue with a multiday celebration involving an eco-fair and activities for kids. (Times Colonist)

A new ban on hunting black bears in parts of British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest will add another layer of protection for spirit bears—black bears with a genetic mutation that results in cream-colored fur. Though it’s illegal to hunt spirit bears, it’s unclear which black bears carry the recessive trait, so the ban, which took effect July 1, was celebrated by First Nations and conservation scientists alike. (Canada’s National Observer)

New research shows that wild stingrays make loud clicking noises, but scientists don’t know why—there’s speculation that the sounds might be made when the animal is in distress or used as a defense signal. (Mongabay)

Just how hard is it to film tiny creatures that float in the ocean? Find out in this behind-the-scenes episode of the Hakai Institute’s Microworlds series. Spoiler: it’s pretty darned hard. (Video length: 5 min)

Behind the Story

This week’s feature writer, Moira Donovan, describes how delving behind the scenes—and retrieving access to information documents about the horses of Sable Island, Nova Scotia—prompted her to think about the idea of wildness.

Like most people, I’ve never been to Sable Island. But like many people, I didn’t need to go in order to imagine the island’s rolling dunes, broad beaches, and iconic wild horses, having seen countless pictures of them. Reality is often more complicated than a picture, though, and in this, Sable Island is no exception. Behind the scenes, as I found in documents obtained through access to information, the horses of Sable Island have long been the subject of debate over how they should be classified—wild, naturalized, or invasive—and how their impact on their ecosystem should be understood … and managed. It’s an arresting reminder of the blurry line between wildness and human influence—a line that is only going to become blurrier. Sable Island, a place that is constantly losing sand along one flank, is replenished on the other by the ceaseless circulation of ocean currents like the Gulf Stream. But as those replenishing currents are weakened by climate change—a possibility that is made more likely by our continued burning of fossil fuels—Sable Island could potentially disappear entirely, consigning the island, and its vision of wildness, to exist only in our imaginations.

Photo courtesy of Parks Canada

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