Somewhere beyond the tides of Passamaquoddy Bay, a North Atlantic right whale rises slowly to breathe. Approximately 380 of them remain on Earth.
Every summer, some of those survivors return to the waters off Southwest New Brunswick, where a small but internationally respected team has become known for giving entangled whales another chance at life.
That reality inspired St. Stephen-based artist Heidi Turner, founder of Holdfast Ink, to create something new—not one of the tea towels, coasters or tote bags for which her work has become known, but a cotton bandana designed to raise money to go towards local whale rescue efforts.
For every bandana sold during the limited fundraising campaign, $10 will be donated to the Campobello Whale Rescue Team, supporting rescuers who head onto the water to free whales trapped in ropes and fishing gear.
“I’ve always wanted to create something that could genuinely raise money for a cause,” Turner told The Courier. “The humpback was already one of my favourite carvings, and a bandana felt like something people would actually wear while supporting something important.”
For Turner, the project is deeply personal.
Growing up in Wisconsin during the environmental movement of the 1970s, “Save the Whales” was more than a slogan. It was part of her childhood. Students at Turner’s small school held bake sales for whale conservation, while Greenpeace campaigns helped bring the plight of whales into classrooms across North America.
From thousands of kilometres inland, Turner could never have imagined that she would one day live in a place where whales come to feed.
After moving to New Brunswick more than two decades ago, she discovered that Passamaquoddy Bay and the Bay of Fundy are among the world’s great whale habitats.
“Now that we live here, we actually see them,” she said. “It became personal.”
That same connection to place defines Holdfast Ink.
Each design begins as a drawing created by Turner and transferred onto linoleum, where she carves it by hand. She then makes a traditional block print, which is digitized and adapted for silk-screening onto products including tea towels, tote bags, cork coasters, greeting cards and now bandanas.
The bandanas themselves are hand-printed by a specialized production partner in China. Turner does not personally print each one; the inks and technology involved require a controlled professional production process that is no longer readily available to her locally. The original artwork, however, remains entirely her own—from the first drawing to the hand-carved block that gives the design its distinctive character.
“It’s as complicated and as old-school as an art process can probably get,” Turner said. “Everything begins with the work we do in my little shop.”
What started as artwork celebrating East Coast life and iconic Canadiana has quietly grown into one of New Brunswick’s creative success stories. Holdfast Ink products are now sold throughout Atlantic Canada, Quebec and Ontario, while the designs remain rooted in the places and communities that inspire them.
The whale bandana may be Turner’s most meaningful project yet.
Founded by legendary rescuer Joe Howlett and fellow Campobello fishermen, the Campobello Whale Rescue Team has earned international respect for disentangling whales caught in fishing gear. Its members have responded to whale emergencies well beyond the waters surrounding Campobello, including in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The work carries extraordinary risk.
In 2017, Howlett lost his life after successfully freeing a North Atlantic right whale entangled in fishing gear. His death was felt around the world, but his legacy continues through the rescuers carrying on the work.
“It felt like meeting a celebrity,” Turner said of meeting members of the team. “These are the people who actually save whales.”
When Turner asked if my husband Patrick, our goldendoodle Maud and I would model the campaign, saying yes was immediate. We have long admired her work, but we loved the cause even more.
Photographer Shannon-May Pringle captured the campaign on the historic St. Andrews waterfront, with Passamaquoddy Bay stretching behind us. Maud proudly wore her own whale bandana as part of what has affectionately become known as the “Maud Squad.”
It felt like the perfect place to tell the story.
The photographs are about more than a new product. They celebrate a coastline where art, wildlife and community are inseparable—and where conservation is not an abstract idea but something unfolding just beyond the shoreline.
With only approximately 380 North Atlantic right whales remaining, every rescue matters.
A bandana might, at first, seem like a small thing. But conservation has always depended on small actions repeated by many people: a conversation, a handmade design, a purchase that supports those willing to head into rough seas to save an animal that cannot save itself.
The whale-bandana fundraiser is expected to run from August 1 to August 31, 2026, pending final confirmation. Bandanas will be available through Holdfast Ink. Shipping and confirmed local-pickup options will be listed on the sales page.
