Qualla: Bonaventure Island

Bonaventure Island: Introduction

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrea Schaffer from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0. The noise reaches you before the island does. Tens of thousands of northern gannets -- white-bodied, amber-headed, with six-foot wingspans -- crowd the eastern cliffs of Bonaventure Island in a colony so dense it looks like snow from a distance. With 51,700 breeding pairs recorded in 2011 and 218 species documented overall, this roughly circular island off Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula is one of the largest and most accessible seabird sanctuaries in the world. But Bonaventure was not always a bird refuge. For centuries it was home to fishermen, farmers, and artists who lived alongside the gannets until the province evicted them all.

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Image: Andrea Schaffer from Sydney, Australia | CC BY 2.0

Bonaventure Island: Cod, Colony, and the Denys Legacy

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andrea Schaffer from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0. Bonaventure Island, along with nearby Perce, was among the earliest seasonal fishing ports of New France. The island's history is intertwined with Nicolas Denys, the French colonist and merchant who controlled much of the Gulf of St. Lawrence trade in the 17th century. By the lat...

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Image: Andrea Schaffer from Sydney, Australia | CC BY 2.0

Bonaventure Island: The Expropriation

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1919, the island became a migratory bird sanctuary under the Migratory Bird Convention between Canada and the United States, but people continued to live there. That changed in 1971, when the Province of Quebec acquired ownership of the entire island by expropriation. Approxim...

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Image: Jeangagnon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Bonaventure Island: A Kingdom of Gannets

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marie-Claire, CC BY 4.0. The birds are the reason for everything that happened after the expropriation, and they are extraordinary. Northern gannets are the island's dominant species, their colony ranking among the largest in the world. But gannets are only the beginning. Black-legged kittiwakes nest on ...

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Image: Marie-Claire | CC BY 4.0

Bonaventure Island: Approaching the Island

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Amateria1121, CC BY-SA 3.0. Bonaventure Island lies southeast of the village of Perce, and the boat ride from the mainland is part of the experience. Tour boats run from May through October, circling the island's cliffs before landing on the western shore, where trails lead across the interior to the gannet...

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Image: Amateria1121 | CC BY-SA 3.0