With a storm on the horizon, threatening to unleash its fury in Hecate Strait, the race was on to stay ahead of it by covering as much distance as possible toward the southern tip of Haida Gwaii.
The plan then was to explore Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve, accessible only by boat or seaplane, and where just a fortunate few travel yearly, given its remote location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Gwaii Haanas’ 138 islands and the surrounding waters in Hecate Strait and the Pacific Ocean were protected after the Haida Nation designated it a Haida heritage site in 1985, and held a blockade on Lyell Island to stop logging.
“Because there’s a big weather system coming in, the plan is to do the whole run from Skidegate to the south end on the first day,” said our expedition leader Jeff Reynolds, one of Cascadia’s 10 crew members who is also a marine biologist and in charge of our itinerary. That evening, looking out from my suite’s large window on the ship’s top deck, I realized I was seeing Canada as I’d never seen it before — unspoiled, teeming with life and exactly how it would have looked when mariners first visited her shores 240 years ago. In comparison, the Haida have been here for at least 13,000 years, according to archaeological evidence.
And with about 1.5 million seabirds calling Haida Gwaii home, the list of birds we spotted during the trip is a long one, including puffins, auklets and murrelets to name just a few. A trip highlight was going with Tollas, who lives in Skidegate, to visit her ancestors’ village of Skedans, one of the five watchman sites in Gwaii Haanas. There we met with watchman Mary Russ and walked on abalone shell-marked trails past mortuary and memorial poles, some barely standing and others on the ground.
As the number of visitors to Haida Gwaii increased in the 1980s, there was growing concern about protecting sacred sites like Skedans. As a result, the Haida Gwaii Watchmen Program was started and was initially run by Haida volunteers.
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