Japneet Singh, a security patroller at Nova Scotia’s famed Peggy’s Cove — a longtime treasure of Atlantic Canada’s coastline southwest of Halifax — is no stranger to the perils of the sea.
Singh’s summer job is to watch over the black rocks overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, which are routinely slapped violently with salty waves, and covered in slippery algae that can take an unsuspecting visitor by surprise. But despite its dangers, Peggy’s Cove, with its red-and-white lighthouse and sprawling granite terrain, attracts roughly 700,000 visitors each year and is one of Canada’s most photographed sites.
Keeping a watchful eye for visitors who wander too close to the water’s edge, Singh blows his whistle to urge them back onto shore. He is part of a patrol program launched by the province in August 2022, four months after a 23-year-old man was killed after getting swept into the ocean by a wave. Patrollers are on site 12 hours a day, seven days week, …