Majestic Ocean Kayaking. . .

Broken Group Islands Pacific Rim National Park

Back to tours Fragments of Land Emerging from the Sea In the center of Barkley Sound lies a cluster of islands grouped together like pieces of a broken jigsaw puzzle. These small fragments of land known as the Broken Group Islands border on the world's largest ocean and reflect its overwhelming presence. Here, placid waters can turn into foaming cauldrons, salt spray can be driven inland to stunt tree tops, and storms can hurl monster waves against ledges where sturdy plants have dared to grow. The Broken Group thus provides vivid examples of what occurs where land meets the sea.

The Broken Group Islands unit is part of Pacific Rim, a national park with a marine component. As you explore the forests and waterways of the Broken Group you will discover the transitions and contrasts between land and sea that make these islands worthy of being a national park.

The Broken Group Islands have a lure all their own. Whether the spell is cast by crooked forests mantled in fog, havens of quiet water or shadows of aboriginal fishtraps at sundown, the islands have magic. Once you heed their call, you may find yourself returning again and again.

Landform features

The shores of the Broken Group Islands are shaped by the dramatic interplay between geologic forces, tides, waves, wind and living things. Some of the shores' most distinctive features occur along lines of weakness or cracks in the predominantly hard, igneous rock. Surge channels have formed where moving water ebbs and flows along these cracks. Some of these channels are long and end in a cliff face where millions of years of erosion have formed a sea cave or a sea arch across a headland. Eventually, the roof of a sea arch collapses creating a sea stack - a dramatic pillar of stone. Wind and waves wear into the rugged rock and everywhere along the rocky shore this erosion produces pockets and depressions. These form tidepools, windows through which the underwater world can be explored.

Human history

There are more than 100 culturally significant sites in the Broken Group; native villages, canoe runs, fishtraps, trading anchorages, shipwrecks, abandoned mines and logging claims. All are reminders of the presence and activities of people in this sea dominated land.
Pacific Rim National Park provides many opportunities to view remnants from the past. National Parks protect and conserve such remnants to ensure that those who follow will enjoy them too. Cultural artifacts and features are protected by law and their removal or disturbance is illegal.

The West Coast People ( Nuu-chah-nulth)

For millennia the Nuu-chah-nulth have dwelt on the west coast. Archaeologists estimate that 10,000 native people once lived in Barkley Sound. In the Broken Group they were abundantly rewarded with salmon, bottomfish, shellfish, sea birds and marine mammals. The Nuu-chah-nulth were able to devote time to activities other than simple survival and thus developed a highly complex culture.

Stonewall fishtraps, erected in the intertidal zone, captured fish on retreating tides. Though no longer used, these structures still remain, tumbling under the impact of waves or buried under sediments. Good examples can still be seen in the lagoon between Jacques and Jarvis Islands, and a short distance west of the campsite on Gibraltar Island.

There are four Indian Reserves in the Broken Group: on Effingham, Keith and Nettle Islands. These are private lands, not open to the public. All reserves and native sites are protected by law. Please respect these lands and do not trespass.

Traces of history

If the islands could talk, what a story they would tell! They echo with rumors of rum-runners, lonely hermits, copper mines and shipwrecked bank robbers. Perhaps these are just the yarns of fishermen, or maybe…

The islands do not readily yield secrets of their past, but traces of history can still be found half-hidden under carpets of moss and thickets of salal. For example, the story of a copper mine lies in the crumbling ruins of a fireplace, stone steps, and an abandoned mine shaft on Prideaux Island. The rusting donkey engine on Hand Islands speaks of logging in the Broken Group.

These traces of history are the threads that tie the islands, as we see them today, to the fabric of the past.

Nature Study

A sharp "bleep, bleep" from the rocky shore will often reveal the whereabouts of a shorebird known as the black oystercatcher. In addition to being important habitat for oystercatchers, the Broken Group is home to many colorful plants and animals of both land and sea. Collecting or disturbing can lead to a loss of these living treasures. Please help conserve them.

Cormorants nest in several sea caves among the islands. These nests are particularly vulnerable to raiding by gulls and crows if the parents have been frightened away. You can help by not entering sea caves from June to September.

Intertidal plants and animals respond to the pulses of the tides-some can withstand exposure to waves as well as drying, and wide temperature changes. Good tidepools for viewing marine life can be found on Gibraltar, Wiebe, and Wouwer Islands. The channel between Mence and Brabant Islands also offers clear glimpses to the sea floor.

Contact Majestic Kayaking at: 1-800-889-7644 toll-free