AdMare, Magdalen Islands, Quebec, Canada, 2024

This video work was developed during a residency at AdMare in the Magdalen Islands in spring 2023, in conjunction with the Solastalgies créatrices research project (CELAT-UQÀM). A sound and visual recording (16mm film and video) was made of the phenomenon of coastal erosion and its possible effects on the Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus), an endangered species of North American shorebird that nests on eroding beaches. Charadrius melodus melodus (which refers to the Northern Atlantic population of Piping Plovers) is found in Quebec only on the Magdalen Islands, although it used to nest in the Gaspé Peninsula (last seen in 1968 and 1973) and on the North Shore (last seen in 1986). Threatened by storms and human activity on the beaches, the population of this bird on the islands is now down to around twenty pairs, which we are trying to protect.