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The Sable Island Story


  • Nancy Ogden, Director

About the Project

"You must see Sable Island - it is a non-verbal place. It is in the eye that you must know it" --Roberto Dutesco, photographer

The Story of Sable Island chronicles a year on a tiny crescent of sand, 180 miles off the coast of Nova Scotia. The island is 25 miles long and a mile wide with dunes that up to 90 feet in height. More than 500 ships and 10,000 sailors have fallen victim to the storms, currents, fog and shoals of Sable Island. (In a violent storm, the sand dunes and shoals can move up to 5 miles, swept by the violent winds and tides.)

Today, no one lives on Sable. There is only a small scientific research facility - the only full time inhabitants are approximately 300 wild horses. But each year, tens of thousands of harbor and grey seals return to breed on the beaches of this tiny island.

A year on Sable - the birth of seals and foals, the death of horses after a harsh winter - the shark predestation of seal pups, the swarming of shorebirds and the perils brought about by pollution and humankind.