The Rain Changes Everything

GBR RAVE blog #1 - Sept. 3, 2010

When we do school programs, we ask the kids how much they think it rains in the rainforest.  Their eyes go wide when we tell them that if you took the roof off their classroom and put their classroom in the rainforest, it rains so much that the room would fill up with water all the way to the top.  So it rains – a lot – in the rainforest.  That’s what makes everything so lush and green.

But here I am in the rainforest, and the rain is changing everything.  This summer has been so hot and dry that even in the rainforest there’s been a drought.  Up until two days ago, there was hardly any water in the creeks.  Unable to get up the creeks to spawn, the salmon have been waiting in the ocean.  With no salmon in the rivers, the bears have stayed high in the mountains to eat what berries they can find.  And the wolves have been patrolling the beaches, looking for seafood.

But now, it’s raining.  Last night it rained so much it filled an entire zodiac to overflowing.  The rain is constant and steady, the creeks are full of water, and the berries will soon go mouldy and fall off the bushes.  And the animals will be moving around.

Photo: Andrew S. Wright

This matters because I am here with a group of conservation photographers.  The International League of Conservation Photographers has descended, en masse, to document what it at stake if oil tankers are allowed to transit this coast.  Over the next two weeks, they will bear witness to the beauty of this region through video and photographs.  They are here to bring the story to the world of all that stands to be lost if we allow oil to be shipped in supertankers through the Great Bear Rainforest.

The photographers come from around the world – Germany, South Africa, Mexico, United States, Canada…  They come with bags of gizmos and gadgets – at least that’s what I call them – for taking photographs.  There are waterproof cameras for diving underwater, and elaborate camera traps that can be set up to take pictures of wildlife that walk nearby, even at night.  The photographers spent all day yesterday getting ready.  Packing food onto their boats, filling oxygen tanks for diving, checking their gear.  Most importantly, they looked at maps and talked about where to go.

The goal is to capture a wide range of images that tell the story of this region.  Photos of the landscape, of wildlife, of underwater kelp forests, of the Gitga’at people whose home this is, of halibut fishing and seaweed harvesting…  For many of these images, the rain is no deterrent.  But for finding the wildlife, the rain changes everything.  Up until a couple of days ago, local people knew where to find the spirit bears, grizzly bears, coastal wolves and wolverine.  Today, the salmon might be moving towards the rivers, and the bears and the wolves might be following them, but nobody knows for sure.

Photo: Andrew S. Wright

The photographers are heading out into the Great Bear Rainforest, and it’s still raining.

Read the second blog posting here, the third here, the fourth here, and the fifth here.