‘Crabs everywhere’: off Canada’s Pacific coast, Indigenous Haida fight a host of invasive species

The unique wildlife of Haida Gwaii's 150 islands is under attack by invasive crabs, rats and deer - echoing how local people also became vulnerable to outside forces

It was Matt Peck's first season of field work in the archipelago of Haida Gwaii when he found himself on a rocky island overflowing with oystercatchers, thousands of the orange-billed seabirds trilling and squawking in a riot of life.

As the researchers counted eggs on the islet off Canada's west coast, they discovered an odd nest of twigs and grass nestled in the rocks. The team launched into a debate over which species of bird it could have housed.

An egg of an ancient murrelet, which once numbered in the tens of thousands until rats decimated populations