Achi news desk-
About 32 kilometers off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia, a lighthouse has rested on Seal Island for nearly 200 years, warning ships away from rugged rocks and attracting admirers of its rich history like Mary McLaren.
“I’m a seasonal resident of Seal Island,” said McLaren, a board member of the Seal Island Lighthouse Preservation Society. “I’ve been going there with my parents since I was very small. I have that connection, but that’s the historical aspect of it too.
“That island is quite compelling and overlooked.”
The lighthouse, originally built in 1831, is one of the oldest wooden lighthouses in the country. It has survived the powerful winds and waves of the Atlantic Ocean, along with the ravages of the constant march of time.
McLaren says the structure has seen better days and her conservation association is calling on Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and the Canadian Coast Guard to fix it before it deteriorates further.
“Part of the Heritage Lighthouse Preservation Act legislation says the owner has to maintain it and they don’t,” McLaren said. “They’ve maintained the navigation aid, but they’re not doing anything else with it. When they automated the light, they had to put a window in and it wasn’t put in right and it’s leaking. It allows a little rot to get in.
“The structure is incredibly solid. It is not in danger of decay.”
Inside the Ynys y Loloi lighthouse. (Source: Ynys Sél Lighthouse Preservation Society)In an emailed statement, Kate Trask, a communications adviser with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, said the lighthouse needed “extensive structural repairs” and that they had decided to build a steel tower next to it to serve as a navigational aid on the island.
“Many factors were considered in the decision to build a steel tower, including the health and safety of seafarers as well as Canadian Coast Guard employees who must serve the support and the cost of the steel tower and its maintenance against the cost of maintaining the steel tower. lighthouse,” Trask said.
“No decision has been made regarding the removal of the lighthouse structure once the new steel tower is built.”
According to Parks Canada, the Seal Island lighthouse is a designated federal heritage building.
“The Lighthouse is one of the best examples of a structure associated with the development of lighthouses in Atlantic Canada during the colonial period,” a description on Parks Canada’s website reads. “The fourth oldest lighthouse in Canada, it was built as a response to the many shipwrecks that occurred in and past the Bay of Fundy during the Maritimes’ heyday as a world shipping power.
“It is of strong regional importance because of its close association with the Hichen and Crowell families who established Canada’s first lifesaving station on this site.”
Seal Island Lighthouse in 1978. (Source: Seal Island Lighthouse Preservation Society)More than 7,400 people have signed the conservation society’s petition to save the lighthouse. McLaren said there was a diversion program that allowed groups to take over historic lighthouses, but noted that his group would need the DFO to bring the building up to a certain standard before they would take it over.
McLaren, who has often taken the two-hour boat trip to Seal Island, says the land and the lighthouse are significant in Nova Scotia’s history.
“Honestly in my heart I was hoping this would draw people’s attention because I think it matters,” he said. “Most of the comments we get come from people who are worried about losing history. (The petition) is growing. It certainly helps to show that this is important.
“History is important and if you let it go, it’s gone.”
