Sable Island was named after its sand - sable is French for "sand". It is covered with grass and other low-growing vegetation. In 1901, the federal government planted over 80,000 trees on the island in an attempt to stabilize the soil; all died. Sable Island is believed to have formed from large quantities of sand and fravel deposited on the continental shelf near the end of the last ica age.Some believe that Sable Island is actually slowly moving east: waves erode the western shore, and new sand is added on the eastern shore. The island is continually changing its shape with the effects of strong winds and violent ocean storms. The island has several freshwater pounds on the south side between the station and west light and a brackfish lake named Lake Wallace near its centre.
Sable Island is famous for its large number of shipwrecks. An estimated 350 vessels are believed to have fallen victim to the island's sand bars. Thick fogs, treacherous currents, and the island's location in the middle of a major transatlantic shipping route and rich fishing grounds account for the large number of wrecks. The first recorded wreck was in 1583, with the second-to-last occurring in 1947. The last vessel to wreck on Sable Island was a yacht, the sloop Merrimac in 1999. The construction of two lighthouses on each end of the island in 1873 probably contributed to the decrease in the number of shipwrecks.
Few wrecks are visible on the island as the ships are usually crushed and buried by the sand. The large number of wrecks have earned the island the nickname "Graveyard of the Atlantic", although the phrase is also used to describe Cape Codand the Outer Banks area of North Carolina.
The island is home to over 300 free-roaming feral horses which are protected by law from human interference. The best evidence for the origin of the horse population is that they are descended from horses confiscated from Acadians during the Great Expluses and left on the island by Thomas Hancock, Boston merchant and uncle of John Hancock
In the past, excess horses were rounded up and shipped off the island for use in coal mines on Cape Breton Island or to be sold, but the Canadian Government gave full protection to the horse population in 1960, and they have been left alone ever since. No human is allowed to interfere with any of the island's wildlife because it is a wildlife preserve and is protected by the Canadian government.
Harbour and Gray sales breed on the island's shores. Seal counts from the 1960s for the grey seal population estimated 200–300 pups born at that time on the island, but surveys from as recent as 2003–2004 estimated the number of pups born in that season at 50,000. The seals are occasionally predated by the various shark species that inhabit the waters nearby, including then Great White Shark Unusual 'corkscrew' bite wounds on dead seals suggest that the Greenldand sharks probably responsible for most attacks here.
Several large bird colonies are resident, including Arctic terms and Ipswich sparrows. The latter, a subspecies of the Savanna Sparrow breeds only on Sable Island. Many other species of birds are found on the island—some are intentional visitors, migratory or otherwise, and some are small birds that have been blown out to sea in violent storms and have been fortunate enough to find themselves on dry land again.
There is a species of freshwater sponge (Heteromeyenia macouni) found only in pounds on the island.
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