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magazine / jun08
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June 2008 issue |
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FEATURE
Simply Superior
The world’s largest freshwater lake is now the site of
the biggest freshwater marine conservation area on the planet.
Photographers Gary and Joanie McGuffin share views
of the Great Lake they call home.
Photography by Gary and Joanie McGuffin with story by Ray Ford
Online exclusive: Canadian Geographic Photo Club
Join us for an interview with photographer Gary McGuffin and get
a behind-the-scenes look into a photo shoot for Canadian Geographic. |
As the sunrise streaked Lake Superior’s islands with
shadows and light, Gary McGuffin noticed an oddly familiar shape near his campsite: an ancient spear point, so close
he could have stepped on it.
“I imagined the person who sat there, maybe hoping the
spear would bring an animal that day,” says McGuffin,
recalling his find during a 17-day paddle of north-central
Superior with a group of artists last summer. “I wondered
what we can do to see that this experience remains the same
for future generations.”
At least part of the answer came last October, when Prime
Minister Stephen Harper travelled to Nipigon, Ont., to
announce the creation of the Lake Superior National Marine
Conservation Area (NMCA). Aiming to preserve the natural
splendour of an eighth of the lake’s surface, the conservation
area includes 10,850 square kilometres of water, lake bed,
islands, shoreline and wetlands.
It’s a region where peregrine falcons nest on towering
ledges. Coaster brook trout migrate from rivers to the big
lake, then back to spawn. Relict populations of woodland
caribou elude predators and humans by calving on isolated
islands. Arctic flowers, remnants of the last ice age, cling to
frigid coastal crevices.
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