 |
magazine / jun08
 |
June 2008 issue |
|
|
|
Down, with love (page 3)
The wind is much stronger here, bearing down on the beach from the north,
but there are still eiders in the water riding the swells. By late summer, the males,
with their striking white breasts, black crowns and orange beaks, are already 200 kilometres downriver, near Matane.
In fact, the grey- or cinnamon-coloured females have been on their own since
incubation commenced in late May. They are hard to distinguish from the
young, which are almost fully grown but still incapable of flight.
|
Whale bait
The St. Lawrence River’s beluga population is the world’s southernmost
group, isolated from other pods. Excessive hunting, however, has taken
its toll on the St. Lawrence belugas. From an estimated 10,000 before
1885, only 1,000 remain in the river system today. Despite being officially
protected by the Canadian Fisheries Act and the Species at Risk Act, the
St. Lawrence whales have shown no sign of rebuilding their once-thriving
numbers. Shipping, increasing industrial activity and pollution are thought
to be largely to blame for the population’s failure to prosper.
La Société Duvetnor’s guided boat trips offer a chance to spot the
belugas. The trips last from one to four hours and often cross paths
with cavorting pods of the white whales, as well as other marine
mammals and birds. Cruises leave from Rivière-du-Loup between mid-June and early September.
|
|
In 1833, on a trip from New England to Labrador, John James Audubon
observed the eiders with particular zeal. In The Birds of America, he writes: “The
history of this remarkable Duck must ever be looked upon with great interest by the
student of nature. The depressed form of its body, the singular shape of its bill,
the beautiful colouring of its plumage, the value of its down as an article of commerce,
and the nature of its haunts, render it a very remarkable species.” But he also wit-
nessed their wanton exploitation for eggs, meat and down and warned that “this war
of extermination cannot last many years longer.” Audubon was right. The ducks’
numbers plummeted until egging was outlawed in 1916.
But humans have continued to threaten their existence in Eastern Canada, most
recently in the 1970s and 1980s, when the price of down rose significantly. When
Bédard founded Duvetnor, he was also concerned about the impact of development plans in the Lower St. Lawrence, ranging from recreational sports facilities to a liquid-natural-gas terminal proposed
for Île aux Lièvres. And although the eider population in the region today consists of
more than 30,000 breeding pairs, several Quebec biologists are still conducting
research to determine how various factors, both biotic (including epidemics of avian
cholera) and abiotic, influence the fluctuating population.
Before I turn my back to the north channel and head inland for some protection from the wind, a freighter passes by.
It’s not the first I’ve seen since my arrival, but after three days alone in the
woods, I find its presence on the horizon jarring and somehow ominous. I’m
reminded that the St. Lawrence is a highway — one that connects this little
island and its ducks to the rest of the globe. But I’m also cheered by the
knowledge that so little has changed here in almost 10 years. I arrived three
days ago hoping that I hadn’t idealized this place in my memory. I would leave
assured that I hadn’t.
I head back to the pier, straining under the weight of my pack. As I ease
myself upright after stooping to tie my shoelaces, my mind fixes on the down
collectors. Every spring, they sweep inland from the rocky shore to the low,
dense brush, searching for well-camouflaged eider nests. They bend hundreds
of times to collect the precious feathers — gruelling work that has become a
kind of rite. This annual down harvest is rooted in the region’s past and now,
through the work of Duvetnor, stands for a future in which enterprise and
science combine to sustain the land and its remarkable inhabitants.
Lindsay Borthwick is a science writer and editor in Toronto.
top
|
|
|
