Haida Gwaii is an archipelago of greater than 200 islands off Canada’s northern Pacific coast. Haida Gwaii consists of two primary islands, Graham Island (Kiis Gwaay) within the north and Moresby Island within the south, together with many smaller islands. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecate Strait. Nicknamed “Canada’s Galapagos,” these islands assist a few of North America’s most biodiverse ecosystems and wildlife. The islands have a wealthy and complicated ecological panorama, with species that may’t be discovered anyplace else on Earth.
Haida Gwaii: Islands on the Edge of the World
SGang Gwaay Village © Eddy Savage
With a wealthy human historical past that dates again 13,000 years, the unique inhabitants of those lands, the Haida Nation, have used Traditional Ecological Knowledge and different practices to keep up considerate and religious stewardship of the land and water. In 1993, the Council of the Haida Nation and the Government of Canada agreed to make the South Moresby space, which incorporates the southernmost a part of Moresby Island and several other adjoining islands and islets, federally protected because the Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site.
In 2010, the adjoining marine waters acquired safety with the institution of the Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve. The Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, Haida Heritage Site and the Gwaii Haanas National Marine Conservation Area Reserve, collectively known as Gwaii Haanas, signify 15% of the Haida Gwaii islands. Gwaii Haanas is internationally acknowledged for the ecological and cultural safety of greater than 500 recognized Haida heritage websites. For instance, the village of Nang Sdins Llnagaay (Ninstins) on SGang Gwaay (Anthony Island) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The remaining monumental poles and structure honor the dwelling tradition handed down by Haida ancestors.
Aquatic Life
A cruise or kayak by means of Gwaii Haanas will reveal a marine ecosystem teeming with life. Whale-watching alternatives are considerable, as grey and humpback whales move by means of Haida Gwaii yearly on their spring migration towards their summer time feeding grounds additional north.
© Eddy Savage
You may be fortunate sufficient to catch a glimpse of dolphins as they experience bow waves or hear the wholesome populations of sea lions as they bark from rocky outposts.
© Eddy Savage
Twenty species of marine mammals have been recorded in Gwaii Haanas. This consists of the migrating grey, humpback, sei, fin, minke and blue whales, harbor porpoises, Dall’s porpoises and Pacific white-sided dolphins. Orcas are seen often and hunt as apex predators.
Breaching humpback whale © Eddy Savage
Sea otters, as soon as considerable on this space, are actually extinct as a result of overhunting. The plentiful waters surrounding Gwaii Haanas host the most important colony of Steller’s sea lions on Canada’s west coast, in addition to northern fur seals. Both harbor seals and sea lions feed on the wholesome populations of squid and herring.
© Eddy Savage
The magic doesn’t cease on the floor. This marine realm showcases a rare variety of ecological options, habitats and creatures, primarily as a result of its isolation and the truth that many areas escaped glaciation. Haida Gwaii is exclusive in that it has many vibrant intertidal zones that host a kaleidoscope of life. Twice a day, the receding tide reveals limpets, periwinkle snails, mussels, chitons and extra. The shorelines have risen and fallen all through the island’s geological historical past. Many islands now above sea degree have been as soon as beneath it and vice versa.
© Eddy Savage
Under the waters of the Hecate Strait lies a former tundra-like panorama formed by rivers, lakes and seaside terraces that have been submerged after sea ranges rose following the final Ice Age. Off the west coast of Gwaii Haanas is the Queen Charlotte Basin, a structural basin beneath the western Canadian continental shelf.
This shelf drops eight thousand toes to a continental slope and deep ocean abyss. These “ecological edges” are perfect for organic richness and have supported complicated and interdependent colonies of hundreds-year-old coral forests, anemones, snails, crabs and decades-old rockfish. Kelp forests present a habitat for a lot of of those species, together with sea stars and marine worms.
A Birders Paradise
The shorelines and forests of Haida Gwaii present important meals, shelter and breeding habitat for effectively over 200 hen species. The islands are located alongside the Pacific flyway, and dozens of species of migrating birds cease right here in spring and fall.
© Eddy Savage
An estimated 1.5 million seabirds name Haida Gwaii house, and it has turn out to be internationally acknowledged for its seabird populations. Approximately half of those seabirds will be present in Gwaii Haanas.
Twelve species of seabirds nest on the islands, together with the at-risk historical murrelet, for which Haida Gwaii is the one nesting location in Canada. Gwaii Haanas harbors about 750,000 nesting seabirds from May to August, together with sandpipers, geese, murrelets, petrels, cormorants, and tufted and horned puffins, in addition to comparatively excessive concentrations of bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Endemic species embrace pine grosbeak, sooty track sparrow, northern saw-whet owl, Queen Charlotte bushy woodpecker and Steller’s jay subspecies.
Rhinocerous auklet with sand lance. © Eddy Savage
Mammals
Ten land mammals are native to the islands, and 6 of these are subspecies which can be discovered nowhere else on Earth. This consists of the black bear, pine marten, river otter, Haida ermine, dusky shrew, silver-haired bat, California myotis, eager’s myotis, little brown bat and deer mouse. The eleventh species, the Dawson caribou, grew to become extinct in 1908.
Pine marten
The Haida Gwaii black bear is the one bear discovered on the archipelago as we speak. These bears have thrived on a wealthy food plan of salmon and hard-shelled intertidal creatures for therefore lengthy that they’ve developed bigger jaws and tooth than their mainland counterparts. The Haida Gwaii black bear is the most important in North America.
There are greater than 6,800 natural world species within the Haida Gwaii archipelago. The islands are wealthy with temperate rain forests of hemlock, spruce and cedar. The alpine meadows and rocky marine habitats of Gwaii Haanas assist wholesome fungal, plant and animal life. Teeming with life, Haida Gwaii is the vacation spot for explorers on the lookout for a wildlife expedition of a lifetime. Experience wildlife from the shore, the skies and the water.
Tow (Taaw) Hill, an historical volcanic remnant.