All language subtitles for geography EN

Geography of Solitude

You can come back here a couple of times
and see if it's headed up.

Would you like a coffee or tea?

Can you hear the pipe outside?

There. This is the aviation forecast,
and you can see that it's improving.

A row of lightning there with a few
little spots, and this is what's moving

our direction.

The wind picking up to 35, diminishing
to 25, 30.

There was supposed to be a flight today,
a food flight. That's been canceled

because of the weather.

This is a tail end of the rain that we
had this morning.

Why did you make this?

I just made it over the years.

Some of the crystals people gave me, but
like that washed up on the beach.

A school, a class gave me that little
medallion.

So I did a talk there and they gave that
to me.

So, I'm not going to give you a
straightforward talk about the natural

of Sable Island.

This is more about experiencing Sable.

I went to the island in 1971 for a very
quick visit. I managed to get a free

seat on a flight going out with a
journalist.

All I wanted to do was to see the
horses.

I was very keen on horses. I was
attending the art college. I had no

Sable Island otherwise.

And I knew nothing about it.

Initially, I just wanted to be there.

You know, just to be there.

I mean, it's so compelling being in a
place where you're learning things

directly rather than reading about it in
a book.

When I got to the island, it was the
landscape that enthralled me. I'm

around, learning for myself, discovering
for myself.

because that's what this whole Sable
thing has been. It's been a process of

discovery.

Sable Island, 20 miles long, one mile
wide, lies low in the North Atlantic,

about 100 miles off the coast of Nova
Scotia.

After 1971, I was desperate to get back
to Sable Island, so I managed to get a

job with a seal research group from
Dalhousie University as a volunteer

Since I had a lot of time in between
cooking, I started working with the

project, catching seals and trailing
along behind Henry James, taking notes

he was taking compass bearings on the
seal's tracks.

I would say that even now, after 40
years, and that's a total of about 9

days on Sable Island, when I'm out on
the dunes or out on the beach doing

something, I still have these moments of
like, that's incredible.

Found some slides that's been building
this, you know, the life and times of

A -frame.

Henry James built it with a couple of
crew. The reason it has a flat top is it

wasn't designed to be an A -frame. They
ran out of wood.

Built for a three -year project, and it
lasted 20.

This is where I started on C -11.

This is our contact microphone.

If you just hold this, it's going to
record the sound within the world.

So within me.

Okay.

That's so cool.

I mean, this building is a ghost.

It's a figment of fragments of the past.

It's really the only structure on the
island right now that's sort of

There's no batteries and scrap metal or
anything like that. It's just wood.

mostly just wood kind of sinking into
the dunes.

It's got all kinds of stories buried in
there.

He's just looking at pictures of you.

Bonding with the apron.

Is it having a nap? No.

So your film is still in the backpack
there.

Great.

How long can you leave film in
moonlight?

In moonlight.

I mean, I'm just looking at how the
grass is folded over like this. If you

some, you actually just laid something
out under the grass and let the grass

itself be exposed with the moon shining
through it. Just try this.

So in order to find the emulsion size,
you put your lips on it.

And whichever side your lips stick to is
the emulsion.

Okay.

What is this plate called? Pine tree
rust.

And this will process into weed.

I was thinking we should pick a spot for
burying film along the fence line.

That would be easy to find.

When I got to the island, one of the
first projects I became involved in was

collecting horse manure, which could be
used to measure parasite burdens in

horses, and it could be used to monitor
pregnancy rates.

I calculated, based on the number of
samples I collected over the 10 years

I worked on this, that I carried, over
that time, about 6 ,000 pounds of horse

manure in my backpack in total.

And the other thing that I discovered is
that it takes about four hours for a

Sable Island horse to produce a fresh
sample.

If you come upon a group of horses who
are snoozing, when they stand up,

almost all produce a fresh specimen.

So then I could sort of sit there and
read a book and wait for them to stand

And then it was a bit of a panic because
you wanted to know where each sample

was because I needed to know which horse
it came from.

So I was actually recording the seeds
that I could see in the dung,

seeds, seaweed, different types of
grass, if I could tell the difference,

some interesting things every now and
then, finding balloon ribbon in a pile

manure, indicating that the horse had
eaten it.

The dung is alive.

Find them totally kind of scary.

I think maybe it's from being a kid and
these things wandering around in

basements and things.

They're common.

Got a roe beetle, a sawbuck, a
centipede, and an ant.

Our catch of the day.

Oh, look it. Here, here, here.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my gosh.

It may move, you may miss it, but
there's a very interesting spider right

And I'm going to try to catch it.

Can you see the web?

Yeah.

It's just in there, hunkered down.

God, they're fast.

Can you see it?

That was a battle.

This is an incredible view. You can see
both ends of the island right now. This

doesn't happen very often.

The ends of the spit.

And the ends of the spit in that
direction.

What is the logic behind putting horses
here?

It was just commonly done on offshore
islands.

People would put sheep, cattle, horses.

Because there were no predators and you
didn't need any fences, you could just

let them free -range and graze.

Or, in some cases, just forget about
them.

Basically what happened with the horses,
they were just left behind.

How have these numbers changed now?

Hugely.

Well, when I first started working here
on the horses, the population ranged

from 150 to 250.

So now it's ranging from 450 to just
over 500.

You saw my notebooks. I was keeping
track of their markings on their faces

hair patterns, and that was the main way
to identify them.

A spreadsheet is a step to a database.
Basically, a spreadsheet is the easiest

way to enter a whole lot of data.

For instance, if I wanted to know all
the horses who happened to be in that

location, I would then sort by column G.

Or I could sort by column G plus the
date, so then I could see who was in

location earliest and latest.

This particular spreadsheet has got over
10 ,000 entries.

So it's quite full for a spreadsheet.

When the horses die, sometimes they will
die on the beach where they get buried

by sand, sometimes more often in
vegetated areas. And they get returned

island very quickly. All the extra
nutrients going into the sand cause

bursts of vegetation.

What we have with this animal is we know
where he was during his life from fall

to adulthood, what his social status
was, what his reproductive record would

have been.

And then, of course, once they die,
collect tissues, genetic tissues, and

So that kind of life history becomes
incredibly valuable.

1, 2, 3, 4.

We know which guy this is.

It's not very common but this horse has
had a hoof overgrowth condition

so you can see the toes are curled up.

I'll just come back with the scalpel and
take a small tissue for the genetic

information.

This is roll 41.

35 millimeter buried in hemoglobin.

You see underneath it, all the flesh is
gone, but there's loads of beetles and

flies.

Very active, busy under there, feeding.

And then birds can feed on those
invertebrates. So it's a source of

food for beetles, for invertebrates, and
birds for quite a while.

The horses stand here to get some
shelter, and they also rub up against

twigs, the exposed underground roots and
twigs, and they rub

back and forth, grooming their coats.

All the manure that they leave gives you
this incredibly

thick growth.

We've got goldenrods for bees.

There's two over there, two there.

They're just moving around through here.

In a place like this.

The scent of the roses and the juniper.

Valley.

It's like going down into a lost valley.

And it becomes a coin.

Can you smell this?

That crazy smell? That's the arrow.

It's just a sea smell.

My favorite grass.

You can just crawl in amongst the stems

and listen for the wind blowing through
the leaves.

Little things like this.

It's like seeing a sea, an ocean of
green.

It moves like the waves.

I started collecting invertebrates for
the invertebrate collection for museums.

Just focused on the Beatles and then got
interested in all the invertebrates.

All the invertebrates get recorded in a
spreadsheet.

Basically, when I'm actually working,
I'm taking a GPS all the time on

everything.

All those jars on that counter are
filled with things that I collected on

It's a wealth of specimens, but it's
also a high rate of murdering

on Sable Island, which I do give some
thought to.

During the last couple of years, we've
found 70 additional invertebrates on

Sable Island.

Just because I've been paying attention
to invertebrates, just when I've been

working on other things, and when I see
something, I collect it.

It's fascinating that for such a small
island that has been studied so much for

so long, that even as of this year,
still finding things, species that have

overlooked, that haven't been recorded.

And the other thing that's quite
exciting is that as we keep finding

like this, we're also going to start
finding more endemic species, species

don't exist anywhere but on Stable
Island.

Can you use those microphones to pick up
bugs with noises and stuff? Yeah, yeah.

So the bug would have to touch the
electrode. Yeah, okay.

When I was first on Stable Island, the
graces were just up on the far eastern

end of the island.

And it started moving down onto the
dunes, near the spit, and then

colonizing West Spit and the beaches on
the north and south sides.

I mean, they produce over 50 ,000 pups,
so that would be over 50 ,000 mature

females just to start with.

The birds are accumulated at the top of
North Beach.

It's always nice to be in the study.

A great black -backed bill.

Intact, no injury, no oil.

I don't.

A different kind of bill.

A northern cat, a juvenile.

They have quite different colors.

These are adults, which are white with
black hair.

Juvenile check.

Very dark green. Tiny white.

Stole the body that the practice that
it's left with has to be

taken off the boots.

Because they would get mistakenly
counted in the right survey.

Because they feed far at sea and they
pick their food off the surface of the

ocean as seabirds, they're considered as
a sentinel species.

They're very susceptible to picking up
bits of plastic and swallowing them. So

continuing to monitor the stomach
contents of these birds gives you an

trends in the ocean, of the amount of
plastic that's polluting the global

So over a 22 -year period of 300 corpses
that I collected, 72 % of them had

stomachs filled with plastic.

So 20 years ago, this whole area was a
series of freshwater ponds

that stretched all the way through here.

And standing here, there would be a row
of dunes out there, and you wouldn't be

able to see the ocean up here.

And I'm standing where there was
freshwater at one time.

The island has been losing freshwater
ponds for decades.

This is Pine Tree Pond West.

So there's a lot more vegetation.

You can see how trampled it is by the
horses drinking here. All the holes

made by the cooks as they walk around
and sort of churn up the bottom.

A horse water hole that right now is
inactive, but since they haven't been

it recently, small plants have taken
root and are growing.

But once they start using it again, they
would paw at the sand and make it a

little deeper, and those plants would
disappear.

Most of the horses on the island drink
at water holes anyway.

So probably once these plants disappear,
the horses will be fine, but it will

affect nesting ducks and shorebirds.

And all the pond invertebrates.

All the bugs and little fish should be
gone.

And some freshwater plants.

This is actually not an unpleasant
shore.

Kind of like knitting.

Kind of rewarding.

Whenever something's happening on the
mainland, you can sort of tell by the

bundles of balloons that turn up.

Green and red and white for Christmas.

Red and white on Canada Day. Red, white,
and blue on July 4th.

Orange and black on Halloween.

Easter is usually pastel colors.

These are the lips or the rings on the
balloons.

Separate them and then count the number.
That's the way to quantify how much

balloon debris is being found.

How long have you been doing this, the
balloons?

I don't know. I guess 15 years.

There have been a couple with
obituaries.

Some of them are at the boy or at the
girl announcement.

Some are just greetings.

And political balloons.

But also ones from the state for county
sheriff.

You know, vote liberal or...

liberal lie.

There's really not that kind of survey
being done for these anywhere with the,

you know, the kind of detail that, you
know, everything was separated and

measured, the mylar balloon, any
information on the balloon.

The occasional letter, you know, and
some interesting responses.

So that's all the balloon ribbon you
collected in one year? Oh no, there'd be

couple bags like that.

The number of balloons we find on the
islands have declined, probably not so

much because there's been a real
understanding of how bad these things

because the cost of helium is increasing
dramatically and it's becoming scarce,

and so not having helium is solving this
problem for us.

But a couple of examples of some
balloons that I found on Sable. This

came from Indiana.

And when I find any information, like a
note or something attached to a balloon,

I'll usually write to the people who
sent it, not nagging them about not

releasing balloons, but just giving them
some background information so they can

conclude for themselves it wasn't a good
idea.

This was a family that on Halloween
night... in Lafayette, Indiana.

This family wrote their information on a
disc. They attached it to a balloon

bundle. Just the one.

Just the one. It wasn't the whole
release. It was just the one balloon,

disc. They let it go, and it ended up on
Stable Island. It traveled over 2 ,000

miles. And that would be a straight
line. That doesn't sort of account for

gyres and the twists that would have
taken in the atmosphere. And that landed

Stable Island.

All kinds of garbage washes up on the
beach on Sable.

And the plastic breaks up in smaller and
smaller pieces.

I love fishing.

So they're all microplastics.

Those are nurdles.

Nurdles generally are virgin plastic. It
gets shipped as a raw material for

manufacturing plastic items.

Sometimes they're being shipped and
they're shipped in bales, like big bags,

like feed bags.

And if they get lost, because cargo is
lost, then a lot of them would get into

the environment.

Nerdles have been a recognized problem
since the 60s, so there are certainly

people paying attention to nerdles.

I separated them by color so that I
could further separate them by use and

origin.

These are bits and pieces of like rope,
but they break up into smaller and

smaller bits and filaments and whatnot.

So what I would do would be collect the
water that's got these in it and then

just use my tweezers to pick them out.

Anything that slows the wind down so
that it drops sand in an area can

the growth of new dunes.

Because the little clump of balloons is
there, it slows down the wind and the

wind starts dropping the sand grain.

And that's how actually dunes are built
by vegetation or by seaweed or by bits

of driftwood. So even a little bit of
litter can do that. You can see all the

sand that's collected in there from the
wind.

There's marine debris on the beach
that's way too big to move, so they have

be inventory, photograph taken, estimate
of size, just

documented and kept track of over the
long term to see if they break up,

degrade, or move.

So with this thing, once it starts
getting vegetated, it could develop into

dune as well.

I'd say maybe 10 % of it is exposed.

Probably some of it is still at sea from
the bottom.

I mean, I would think maybe at least 20
years when it first appeared in the

islands.

Here, probably just a couple of years.

But right now, it's fairly dry.

Everything pivots around the new frames.

I decided to come back here to spend
more time on the table.

The fact that it lasted so long wasn't a
choice.

I mean, I really didn't, I didn't think
it through.

It just, you know, just happened.

I mean, anything happening is this whole
series of minor decisions that merge

one into the other and have no
significance on their own, but they

and add up and end up in something going
in one direction or another or multiple

directions.

This island today is a narrow, spittin'
plain, a small, lonely world of seals

and wild horses and abandoned dwellings,
often known as a graveyard of ships,

pounded and constantly reshaped by the
surrounding seas, which a handful of

volunteers is trying to save from
dispoliation and oblivion.

This island is 20 miles long.

And the restoration program has to be
rather complicated because there are

few people to help.

So what are the most urgent matters to
do in this restoration program?

Well, the first thing that we would try
to do is, in areas such as this, we try

to prevent the salt water from washing
over here too quickly so that it

increases the erosion and prevents
vegetation from taking hold here.

Did you make a tent with vegetation?

Yes. Can you show me where? Down here.

This is a typical thing that the horses
use.

Yeah.

So how do you protect them? I can't.
There's nothing I can do about it.

I'm very, very impressed.

Tell me, do you love that island?

Certainly, yeah.

It's home, I suppose.

So this is a list of all the stuff that
I found, all the items I found during

the cleanup.

So I have to find the labels for
everything and make sure that it

this originated in Canada.

And if it didn't, then where?

So 111 items, only 17 of them originated
clearly in the United States.

And then another eight originated beyond
that. So Brazil, Japan, South Africa,

Haiti, Malaysia.

Russia, Cuba, and then a couple of
Central America.

Doing brand audits are not that common
yet, so the work on Stable will be new,

but it's not a new question to ask.

This is an important sampling site.
Sable Island is an important platform

monitoring the health of the Northwest
Atlantic and beyond because of its

location.

Marine litter is something that we
started doing in the 1980s.

So you're looking at circulation, but
also looking at what are the dominant

materials that are contributing plastics
to the environment, how much of it is

fishing gear, how much is household use,
how much is industrial, that sort of

thing. And the reason you want that
information is to try to solve the

to find ways of reducing input and
possibly even cleaning up. But reducing

is the big thing.

Yeah, so basically, I mean, you need the
information to solve the problem.

The educational component is to reach
out to people who aren't aware, who

haven't really thought about it, or have
thought about it but aren't really

aware of how.

they might make changes.

And reinforcing the idea and the
immediacy of the problem, the urgency of

problem for people who are aware of it.
Everybody, we all are all using

plastics.

Why do you think it doesn't just come
from within?

Why would you think it does?

Because they're destroying the planet.
That is our only home.

I mean, kids

can understand and get it really
quickly.

They're not out there with a job and,
you know.

buying stuff for their family, et
cetera, et cetera.

You start to lose connection with that
when the reality of the world and the

planet gets a grip on you.

like this when i was 11 years old i

remember thinking about it when i was a
child

living in a suburban area you know
vacant lots just

wild messy places and i used to spend a
lot of time in there in amongst the

trees and the shrubs and just living in
my own world and then

you know they'd get plowed up, the house
would be built, and they'd be gone.

And, I mean, it really did occur to me
at that age that this is because there

are too many people.

There are too many of us, and we just
kept destroying things.

That's all I had in my head. I didn't
have any idea, any sort of education or

any background or anything, any thoughts
about environment, ecology, or anything

like that.

I just made a connection between people
and development and

what I thought of nature, which was, you
know, just the greenery in a vacant

lot.

I feel claustrophobic and trapped when I
start working with this stuff.

It's just a general feeling. It's not a
specific feeling that the materials

themselves are affecting me, but just a
sense of being in the ocean.

I just want people to have a sense of an
ever -increasing problem with plastics

in the ocean.

Night Sable Island mist collecting on
film and processed in

seaweed

Beautiful isn't it?

Yeah.

It appears that my life is still on.

That's all I ask, all I do.

All the time.

And do you want to stop?

to what's going on.

Because it's been really super rewarding
and engaging since I'm going to be

here. But I lost track of some

notes.

Let's get this stuff back to Facebook.

Well, we could focus on getting down.

I don't really need to get down.

No, but it'd be nice to spend time.

17, 10,

10, and 5.

This is the last roll.

Your last roll of film?

Really? Yeah.

Are you feeling emotional because of the
horse?

It's the best of life.

With the animals being able to go about
their natural lives.

which includes dying and being recycled.

It's not unusual to find a corpse of a
dead horse.

But as it decomposes, all the nutrients
that made that horse, all the organic

materials become part of the ground.

And then the grass grows up around the
corpse. New yarrow, new goldenrod.

And then you see a mare who's nursing a
foal.

Wandering along, she stops to graze the
grass next to the corpse.

And you see all those nutrients flowing
from the dead horse

to the ground, to the mare, to the milk,
to the foal, which grows up again

and then gets part of the whole system
all over again.

And because we're here, breathing the
air, occasionally eating a cranberry,

drinking the water, we're part of the
whole.

flow, the ebb and flow of all the
materials that

connect us all.