Hakai Magazine will close at the end of the year, but its science-based coverage will live on
Krista Langlois, a long-time freelance writer for Hakai Magazine based in Colorado, joined the editorial team at the start of 2024 and was ready to move to Canada. Her husband had given his notice at work, and she was applying for a Canadian work visa. They found renters for their house in Colorado and secured a rental home in Victoria, B.C.
While boxing up their lives, Langlois found a gift certificate for a massage. I need to get that before we move, she thought. One morning in July, Langlois lay in a massage bed while her stress melted away. In her relaxed state, after the masseuse had left the room, Langlois checked her phone and opened her email to see the words “structural reorganization” written in a subject line. “All of a sudden, it was just like my whole body tensed up,” says Langlois. “It was like being punched in the gut.”
On July 24, Hakai announced it would cease publishing at the end of the year due to financial cuts from the Tula Foundation, their non-profit funder. “They needed to carve out bits of the foundation that they just really couldn’t support any longer,” says Jude Isabella, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. “I get it. It’s a tough financial climate, and they have lots of responsibilities.”
After receiving a series of memos warning of Tula’s impending downsizing, the rest of the editorial team convened on Zoom to find out that the foundation would need to move forward without some components, including Hakai. They were given until December 31 to continue publishing. This six-month termination notice launched the editors into planning mode.
Hey Dave, It’s Jude
The Tula Foundation, founded in 2001 by Eric Peterson and his wife, Christina Munck, created various humanitarian and science-based initiatives, including the Hakai Institute, a coastal science organization with researchers along the Alaskan, B.C., and Washington state coasts.
While reporting for The Tyee in 2011, Isabella kept running into Peterson and Munck, who showed interest in science journalism and suggested Isabella lead what would become Hakai. “If you’re serious, I’ll send you a proposal,” she told them.
When she returned home to Victoria, Isabella called Dave Garrison, her former publisher at YES! Magazine. “The beat should be the marine ecosystem,” she told Garrison. “It should be ocean coastline science on the coast,” tying it to the work of the Hakai Institute. “If you look around, there’s nobody else covering that specific beat,” Isabella continued. Garrison was on board, and the two would spend the next decade working together as co-founders.
Break In and Launch
The week before Hakai’s launch was a mad dash, especially after its office was broken into and robbed. The incoming managing editor, Shanna Baker, recalls entering a dishevelled workplace the morning after the break-in. Their computer monitors and cameras were gone. In their wake, the burglars left a trail of scattered Hakai business cards. They even took Garrison’s shoes.
Peterson and Munck accepted what happened and purchased new equipment. “We were super fortunate with benevolent funders,” says Baker. The couple’s generosity also allowed Isabella and Garrison to accept leads that took writers across the West Coast.
“Hakai launched while I was a graduate student [in environmental science] at the University of British Columbia,” says Vanessa Minke-Martin, now audience engagement and news editor. “I remember reading the stories and feeling like they captured what I loved about science and the experience of being in the field.”
After graduating and finding a job in environmental science, Minke-Martin spent a year building her writing portfolio so she could apply as an intern at Hakai. She was over the moon when she got the job. “Jude has this belief that anyone can become a better writer if they’re committed to the process,” says Minke-Martin. “Teaching someone the science is almost harder.”
One of Minke-Martin’s Hakai features explored the efforts of biologists working to conserve wild salmon populations in the Russian River watershed on California’s coast. With the Canada–US border having been closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, Minke-Martin reported most of the story by phone and Zoom.
Months later, the border re-opened as she was putting the final touches on her feature, and Hakai’s editorial team was eager to get Minke-Martin’s boots on the ground in California. “It was a big challenge, but it was also a huge vote of confidence from the editorial team that, as a young writer, they would give me this opportunity,” Minke-Martin says about her first international and multi-day reporting trip.
Minke-Martin expanded her reporting to write The Hail Mary Hatcheries, the third story in a series called The Paradox of Salmon Hatcheries. In 2023, Minke-Martin was nominated for the Best Emerging Writer award at Canada’s National Magazine Awards.
A New Beginning
While the magazine will cease publishing at the end of this year, Hakai’s editorial team have found their next venture after months of calling and coordinating with others in the industry. The editorial team will keep reporting on their unique ocean and coastal-based beat by joining bioGraphic, an independent online publication powered by the California Academy of Sciences which covers biodiversity and environmental issues.
Receiving this news on November 7, Isabella “whooped” from her desk, turning every head in the room. They knew why she was cheering and were elated when Isabella stepped out to get a bottle of champagne. They found salvation, no longer as Hakai, but as journalists covering coastal beats around the world.
Journalism benefits from being more collaborative than competitive, says Isabella, and knowing how to park your ego and cooperate makes everyone more productive. “If you have the energy, the desire, the passion, and you combine all that,” she says, “you’re that much stronger.”
Though the Tula Foundation cut its funding for Hakai, Isabella remains grateful for what they have provided. “This is not an acrimonious breakup,” says Isabella, thankful for being able to run a magazine free from financial burdens and focus on producing quality journalism. “Thank you for 10 years of being able to build an incredible magazine with a great reputation to give lots of people 10 years’ worth of experience that they hadn’t had before.”
