Scientists are still assessing the impact of post-tropical storm Fiona on fossils and other cultural artifacts buried along the island’s coastline.
The massive storm of September 2022 wiped out a record amount of coastline, according to researchers at the UPEI School of Climate Change and Adaptation. In some places, this value, which was an average of 30 centimeters per year, was between one and a half and seven meters.
“From a fossil perspective, Fiona had quite an impact. She gives and she takes,” said palaeontologist John Calder, who works as a consultant to the state government.
One of the missing was an area on PEI’s North Shore where five large rocks were covered with reptile tracks dating back 290 million years.
Coastline erosion also has some benefits, says palaeontologist John Calder, who works as a consultant to the state government. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
“It’s hard to imagine that the power of the ocean could do this, but they were at least a ton each and they vanished right after Fiona,” Calder said.
“It was just terrifying. Because these were quite beautiful, there were multiple different types of creatures all on one surface. They had a lot of real stories to tell.”
Calder said researchers were able to take beautiful photographs of the rocks between their discovery and the 2022 storm, but the artifacts were lost forever.
glances into the past
Calder also said shoreline erosion has some benefits.
“Coastal erosion, the bane of all who live near the coast, actually continues to reveal more and more clues to Prince Edward Island’s prehistoric past,” he said. “It’s been an incredible record, especially since Fiona.”
PEI has become a hot spot for paleontology in part because of recent discoveries from the early Permian period, before the age of dinosaurs, Calder said.
John Calder holds a fossilized fern discovered on Prince Edward Island. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
Coastal erosion also means it’s important to constantly monitor changes to the Island’s coastline, Calder said.
“Sometimes a continuous path of footprints is collected leading up to the cliffs. Then a year or two, five years later, if we continue to monitor that area, we’ll find more examples of the creature’s path continuing into the cliffs…
An incredible record emerged.
— John Calder, paleontologist
“Coastal erosion is revealing more and more fossil treasures around PEI, and it’s important to always be on the lookout.”
There are only a few trained paleontologists on the Island, so it’s important for what the field calls citizen scientists to monitor the shoreline as erosion continues, Calder said, “to be aware, to be vigilant, especially to walk on the cliffs and along the shore.”
“Keep your eyes peeled and if you see anything different, bring them to the attention of the PEI government. I will then be contacted to see if this is a potential fossil.”
This fossil was discovered off the coast of Hillsborough Bay in late 2023. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
Calder cited the discovery in the summer of 2022 of the entire fossilized skeleton of a prehistoric animal dating back about 290 million years as a situation where scientists must react quickly before the fossil disappears.
A local teacher was the one who noticed and reported this in Cap Egmont.
“Every tide that came in would cover it and take some of it away,” Calder said.
“It only took a few days from the time he found it to the time we collected it, but it wouldn’t be there for another week or two. It was just a brief opportunity.”
Another view of the large fossil unearthed at Cap Egmont in the summer of 2022. (Submitted by John Calder)
‘Do not bother’
State archaeologist Christian Thériault agrees that coastal erosion is a major concern when it comes to preserving traces of the island’s heritage.
“Fiona had a pretty big impact,” Thériault said. “As I walked around the island, I could see many known and unknown places that were greatly damaged by the storm, with a lot of information at risk of being lost if we do not try to preserve it.”
State archaeologist Christian Thériault says coastal erosion is a major concern for the work he and his team do trying to preserve the island’s cultural heritage. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
With rising sea levels, “the island is slowly disappearing. So a lot of this cultural and geological heritage is constantly disappearing.”
“It’s our job to try to detect it, preserve what we can, and maybe get it out of the ground before it disappears.”
Thériault said he wants Islanders to contact his department if they find something that could be a cultural artifact or fossilized echo of a past life form.
Some of the artifacts preserved by PEI’s archaeological department. (Shane Hennessey/CBC)
“After a big storm like Fiona, we had a lot of people contact us because everything was being exposed all over the island,” he said. “The important thing is not to disturb [it]. Let us know where it is, what they found, so we can go investigate.”
Thériault’s advice:
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Take a photo of the object and place it next to an object, such as a coin, to get a sense of its size.
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You can document the exact location of the object by dropping a pin in your phone’s mapping app.
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Contact the state archaeologist by emailing archeology@gov.pe.ca.