‘We’re losing eyes on the coast’: death of Canadian lightkeeper casts doubt on future of shoreside guardians

The keeper's death led to questions over safety, rattled the tightly knit group of sentinels and renewed de-staffing fears

On a cloudy but calm morning early in April, a helicopter touched down on a string of remote islands off British Columbia's Pacific coast. One person alighted; two others climbed onboard and the aircraft rose into the sky.

The lone man made his way towards Triple Island lighthouse, an octagonal concrete tower erupting from the trio of islets. Fringed with barnacles, rockweed and algae, the rocky cluster sits on Canada's west coast, a seascape notorious for its battering storms, heavy fog and hostile waters.