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de:Sable Island pl:Sable (Nowa Szkocja) Sable Island is situated 180 km southeast of Nova Scotia, Canada in the Atlantic Ocean. The island is a crescent-shaped sandbar emerging from the vast shoals and shallows which have caused over 300 recorded shipwrecks. Almost 2 km at its widest point, it is about 38 km long and is covered with grass and other low-growing vegetation. Sable means "sand" in French. The island is often referred to as "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" because the area is commonly frequented by hurricanes, nor'easters and other strong storms that have caused numerous shipwrecks in the area. It is home to over 250 wild horses who are protected by law from human interference. One theory regarding the origin of the wild horse population is that they are descended from horses confiscated from Acadians during the Great Expulsion and left on the island by Boston merchant Thomas Hancock, uncle of John Hancock. Several large bird colonies are here, Arctic terns, and Ipswich sparrows, Passerculus sandwichensis princeps, a subspecies of the Savannah Sparrow that breed nowhere else. Harbor and Grey seals also breed here. There is also a species of freshwater sponge, Heteromeyenia macouni, only found on the island. The Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes, who explored this region in 1520-1521, is believed to have been one of the first people to encounter this island. Beginning over 200 years ago, lighthouse and life-saving crews and their animals have inhabited the island. A brief attempt at colonization at the end of the 16th century by the French failed. Meteorological and atmospheric studies are routinely conducted on Sable because of its unique geographic position down-wind from the mainland. There are frequent heavy fogs in the area due to the contrasting effects of the cold Labrador Current and the warm Gulf Stream. Sable Island is mentioned in the book "The Perfect Storm" and a staged version appears in the movie. The island is specifically mentioned in the Constitution of Canada as being the responsibility of the federal government. It was under the administrative control of the Canadian Coast Guard like Saint Paul Island, but government privatization initiatives in 1999 created the Sable Island Preservation Trust to manage the island, and come up with the $1-million per year required to run the island. The island is presently in danger of not receiving the required funding to operate, and therefore is in danger of tourists accidentally contaminating the ecosystem in 2005 when the funding may run out. As a result of this separate administration, amateur radio operators consider it a separate country, having the call sign prefix CY0. Since many amateurs want to collect contacts with as many countries as possible, and the island is virtually uninhabited, this makes stations operating from Sable Island very desirable to contact ("rare DX"). As a result, a number of private expeditions to operate temporary radio stations (known as DX-peditions) have been mounted. The island is considered a part of the Halifax Regional Municipality and the federal electoral district of Halifax, although Halifax proper is some 180 km away on the Nova Scotian mainland. Sable Island is believed to have formed from large quantities of sand and gravel deposited on the continental shelf near the end of the more recent ice age. The island continually changes shape due to the effects of strong winds and violent storms. In 1901, over 80,000 trees were planted on the island in an attempt to stablize the soil; all died.
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