A rare look at Saint John's mysterious Manawagonish Island

When it comes to strange, uninhabited islands off the coast of west Saint John,Partridge Island tends to hogthe spotlight.

Few people know about its bigger, even-more-isolated neighbour,ManawagonishIsland.

On a clear day, it is a dark smear visible on the horizon fromSaint's Rest Beach, andfrom Route 1 heading into the city's west side.

Punctuated off its northeastern tip by a smaller islet, Thumb Cap Island, Manawagonishis a protected sea bird sanctuaryof the Nature Trust of New Brunswick. It's also the subject of at least one legendinvolvingburied treasureand a ghost.

The island is just 1.5 kilometres from the mainland butaccessible only by boat, which means few people get a chance to visit. No access is allowed between May 15 and Aug. 15 because ofthe bird breeding season.

TheCBC's Julia Wright kayaked there with the expert guides at River Bay Adventuresand captured these photos.

Guides Pete Lavigne and Walter Emirchget ready to kayak to Manawagonish Islandfrom the Irving Nature Park.

Unlike Partridge Island, a few kilometres south,Manawagonish has neverbeen a popular recreation spot.

In 1786, the island was granted to agroup of men includingWilliam and Thomas Pagan, the Scottish dry goods importers, whichPagan Place in the city's south end is named after.

"The great mass of pleasure seekers know nothing of it," according to aSaint John newspaper in 1878 which repeatsa dubious talethat "[Captain] Kidd's treasure has been found on the island, and still there is morepiles and piles of doubloons in rust-eaten pots only waiting the advent of daring and adventurous spirits to carry it off."

It remained in various private hands until 1991, when alocal family, who wished to remain anonymous,donated it to the Nature Trust of New Brunswick.

Gulls and double-crested cormorants hang out on the seaweed-covered rocks approaching the island.

The bird population on the islandhas been tracked since the1940s. Its proximity to the pulp mill, oil refinery, and other heavy industrial sites has madeManawagonishIsland an important site forresearchers who track pollution trends in the Bay of Fundy.

Since the 1990s,researchers at the New Brunswick Museum andEnvironment and Climate Change Canada havecollectedand testedsea bird eggs from Manawagonish Island forcontaminants providing a valuable sense of what's going into the water, and how it affects wildlife.

Getting there from the Irving Nature Parktakes about 30 minutes in goodweather.

The trip isbest undertaken by skilledpaddlers, or with an experienced guide like PeterLavigne, pictured.

The island'screscent-shaped main cove.

"The main beach,you can see,is pretty clean hardly any debris that we have to clean off," said Emrich.

It also offers"a beautiful view of west Saint John that most people don't get to see unless they get out on the water."

Leading up from the main beach are rollinghills with no paths,thick vegetationandrocky cliffs all of whichpresentrisks to the casual visitor.

An eagle takes flight from one of the dead trees on the island.

"This is one magnificent bird sanctuary," said Emrich. "Thousands of gulls, cormorants, [and] bald eagles."

"At one time we evenhad nesting peregrine falcons on the cliffs on the southwest side of the island."

"Unfortunately, we haven't seen them in a few years but hopefully some peregrines will be back before long."

The southeastern side of the island, dominated by cliffs and small inlets.

"It is within a comparatively short distance to the City," wrote a columnist in the Saint John Daily News in 1878.

"It has a beautiful beach for bathing; in some places it has rugged cliffs indented with rude caves worn out by the surges of restless ocean; it has quiet groves and fields of Arcadian beauty and simplicity."

Some 140 years later, none of that has changed much.

"It is so close to Saint John but so isolated," Emrich said.

At one time,Manawagonishwas covered with a coastal forest of spruce and fir.

Thebird population has slowly contributed to changes in the plant life.

"A lot of the trees have died because of all the bird guano that's been deposited on the island over the past many decades," said WalterEmrich, a steward with the Nature Trust.

Today, the island iscovered in scrubby thickets of elder bushes, fireweed, wild roses, blackberries, raspberries, and tall grass.

In 2007, the Nature Trust and partners in the local community erectedfive poles with platforms, like this,on which the island's population of blue herons can roost.

These platforms, and the remains of a steel jetty, are amongthe only manmade structures on the island.

Lichen forms a major part of the plant lifeon the island.

Bright-yellow Maritime sunburst lichen, pictured, normally grows onbark and wood and only rarely on rock.

The droppings of thousands of sea birds providethe nutrients the lichen needs to growon this boulder.

Fortunately for birds on the island,Emrichsaid, "there aren't too many predators other than the eagles, so a lot of them nest right on the ground."

The Nature Trust has planted some 500 treesin an attempt to reforest the island.

"Hopefully in another ten years the birds will be able to nest in those trees,"Emrichsaid

Up until the past few years, the cliffs were a nesting site for peregrine falcons.

According to Saint John historian Harold Wright, people "used to take cattle over there and let them graze through the summer, and return in the fall," Emrich said.

"I'm not sure how the cattle made out," he said. "Hopefully none of them fell over the cliffs."

A baby gull eyes the unexpected visitors suspiciously.

"We don't encourage people to go on the island during the nesting season,"Emrichsaid.

While it's not possible to land on the island for most of the summer, paddlers can still get a great view of the site bykayaking around it providedthey don't approach too closely andbother the birds.

An unsavoury reality of visiting a large bird colony: manybird carcasses, like this, can be found scattered acrossthe island in various states of decomposition.

The main beach is also littered with bird bones.

A barrier beach and a small pond on the western side of the island.

During the storm tides,debris often washes in, then gets stuck in the pondbehind the barrier beach.

Odd items on the beach included cartires, and an entire truck bed, pictured, as well asan old freezerand a lobster trap.

"All kinds of things there that we will get cleaned up one day when we can get a big enough boat out," Emrich said.

The Nature Trust of New Brunswickorganizes regular coastal cleanups at15 smallislands in the Bay of Fundy, includingManawagonishIsland.

Emrichrecoversa buoy that has washed ashore on the barrier beach.

"We pick up 'tons and 'tons of trash every year that is thrown off boats or washed from shore," Emrich said,"and drifts around in the currents and ends up on theshoreline."

The view from one tip of the island to the other, includingremnants of bird nests on the ground.

At20 hectares, or 48 acres,the island is more than double the size of neighbouring, Partridge Island.

The nineteenth century newspaper articlementions that the island was, at one time,the site of a eerie, abandoned house.

"It has an unoccupied house thereby hangs a tale; the house is haunted," the article states.

It also describes a "dismal groan" that visitors allegedly heard coming from the cliffs, "not human in sound, but like the last wail of an expiring demon."

No haunted housesremainon the island today.

Despite therisks associated with getting there, Manawagonish is "an amazing island so close to Saint John," said Emrich."It's great to go and visit it."

The goal of the Nature Trust is to ensure the island is protected "in perpetuity," he said.

"Someone will be looking after it and making sure that it's protected forever."