Gulf of St. Lawrence | |
---|---|
French: Golfe du Saint-Laurent | |
Coordinates | 48°36′N61°24′W / 48.600°N 61.400°W |
Type | Gulf |
Basin countries | Canada Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France) |
Surface area | 226,000 km2 (87,000 sq mi) [2] |
Average depth | 152 m (499 ft) [2] |
Max. depth | 530 m (1,740 ft) [2] |
Water volume | 34,500 km3 (8,300 cu mi) [2] |
The Gulf of St. Lawrence fringes the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, possessions of France, in North America. [3] [4]
The Gulf of St. Lawrence connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence River. [5] [6] [7]
At Baie-Trinité, the Pointe-des-Monts Lighthouse, a National historic site of Canada, was built in 1829-1830 on a point that ancient geographers, since Samuel de Champlain (1567-1655) himself, classified as the demarcation point between the St. Lawrence River and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. [8] [9]
The Gulf of St. Lawrence is bounded on the north by the Labrador Peninsula and Quebec, to the east by Saint-Pierre and Newfoundland, to the south by the Nova Scotia peninsula and Cape Breton Island, and to the west by the Gaspé Peninsula, New Brunswick, and Quebec. As for significant islands the Gulf of St. Lawrence contains Anticosti Island, Prince Edward Island, Îles-de-la-Madeleine archipelago, Cape Breton Island, Saint Pierre Island, and Miquelon-Langlade.
Half of the ten provinces of Canada adjoin the Gulf: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Quebec.
Besides the St. Lawrence River itself, significant streams emptying into the Gulf of St. Lawrence include the Miramichi River, Natashquan River, Romaine River, Restigouche River, Margaree River, Humber River, Mingan River and others.
Branches of the Gulf include the Chaleur Bay, Fortune Bay, Miramichi Bay, St. George's Bay, Bay St. George, Bay of Islands, and Northumberland Strait.
According to Commission of Toponymy Quebec, the St. Lawrence River becomes the gulf at Pointe des Monts on the Côte-Nord and Matane Bas-Saint-Laurent or Sainte-Anne-des-Monts La Haute-Gaspésie, the Estuary is upstream, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, much wider, downstream. [14] [15]
Large marine mammals travel in all the seas of the earth, the research and observations of these giants concern fishermen and shipping industry, exercise a fascination and a keen interest for laymen and, subjects of endless studies for scientists from Quebec, Canada and around the world. [16] [17] [18]
Thirteen species of cetaceans frequent the waters of the estuary and the gulf of the St. Lawrence River. [19]
1. Hyperoodon ampullatus. — Hypéroodon boreal, Hypéroodon arctique. — (Northern Bottlenose Whale).
2. Delphinapterus leucas. — Béluga, Bélouga, Baleine blanche, Dauphin blanc, Marsouin blanc. — (Beluga Whale).
3. Physeter macrocephalus. — Grand cachalot, Cachalot, Cachalot macrocéphale. — (Sperm whale).
4. Lagenorhynchus acutus. — Lagénorhynque à flancs blancs, Dauphin à flancs blancs. — (Atlantic white-sided dolphin).
5. Lagenorhynchus albirostris. — Dauphin à nez blanc, Dauphin à bec blanc, Lagénorhynque à bec blanc. — (White-beaked dolphin).
6. Orcinus orca. — Orque, Épaulard. — (Killer Whale).
7. Globicephala melas. — Globicéphale commun, Globicéphale noir, Dauphin pilote. — (Long-Finned Pilot Whale).
8. Phocoena Phocoena. — Marsouin commun, Cochon de mer, Dieu des mers. — (Harbour Porpoise).
9. Eubalaena glacialis. — Baleine franche de l'Atlantique nord, Baleine noire de l'Atlantique nord, Baleine de Biscaye. — (North Atlantic Right Whale).
10. Balaenoptera acutorostrata. — Petit rorqual. — (Minke whale).
11. Balaenoptera musculus. — Baleine bleue, Rorqual bleu. — (Blue whale).
12. Megaptera novaeangliae. — Rorqual à bosse, Baleine à bosse. — (Humpback whale).
13. Balaenoptera physalus. — Rorqual commun. — (Fin whale).
This section contains an unencyclopedic or excessive gallery of images. |
The gulf flows into the Atlantic Ocean through the following straits:
Since its appearance on maps, there has been no consensus on the demarcation of the St Lawrence River from the Gulf, nor whether it is hydrographically a gulf or an estuary. [28] [29]
According to Fisheries and Oceans Canada 2023, the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence planning area covers most of the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence bioregion, an area with some of the warmest surface waters in Atlantic Canada during summer and the largest amount of sea ice during winter. The planning area is approximately 240,000 km². [4]
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the name of Gulf St. Lawrence in a hydrologic context is not accurate, a gulf has to be considered more as a sea bordering the North American continent than as simply a river mouth. [30]
The International Hydrographic Organization 1953 defines it as follows: [31]
St. Paul Island in Nova Scotia off the northeastern tip of Cape Breton Island, is known as the "Graveyard of the Gulf" because of its many shipwrecks. [32] Access to this island is controlled by the Canadian Coast Guard. [33]
In 1919 the first Migratory Bird Sanctuaries (MBS) in Canada were established under the Migratory Birds Convention Act on Bonaventure Island, on the Bird Rocks of the Magdalen Islands, and on the Percé Rock. These migratory bird sanctuaries are administered by the Canadian Wildlife Service. [34]
The Federal Government of Canada manages 37 National Parks of Canada, [35] overview of the parks touching the Gulf of St. Lawrence: Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve, in Côte-Nord, Forillon National Park on the eastern tip of the Gaspé Peninsula, Prince Edward Island National Park on the northern shore of the island, Kouchibouguac National Park on the northeastern coast of New Brunswick, Cape Breton Highlands National Park on the northern tip of Cape Breton Island, Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of Newfoundland. [35] [36]
In Quebec, since March 31, 2024, the network of protected areas [37] [38] extends over 274,431 km2 and is established as follows:
The five provinces bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence have several provincial parks with protected coasts.[ citation needed ]
The Laurentian Channel is a feature of the floor of the Gulf that was formed during previous ice ages, when the Continental Shelf was eroded by the St. Lawrence River during the periods when the sea level plunged. The Laurentian Channel is about 290 m (950 ft) deep and about 1,250 km (780 mi) long from the Continental Shelf to the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Deep waters with temperatures between 2 and 6.5 °C (36 and 44 °F) enter the Gulf at the continental slope and are slowly advected up the channel by estuariane circulation. [40] Over the 20th century, the bottom waters of the end of the channel (i.e. in the St. Lawrence estuary) have become hypoxic. [41]
The gulf has provided a historically important marine fishery for various First Nations that have lived on its shores for millennia and used its waters for transportation. [42] [43] [44] [ citation needed ]
The first documented voyage by a European in its waters was by the French explorer Jacques Cartier in the year 1534. Cartier named the shores of the St. Lawrence River "The Country of Canadas", after an indigenous word meaning "village" or "settlement", thus naming the world's second largest country. [45]
Basque whalers from Saint-Jean-de-Luz sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1530 and began whaling at Red Bay. [46] They established their base on the Strait of Belle Isle [22] and worked closely with the Iroquois in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1579 the English government closed all English ports to Spanish oil imports. As a result, a third of Basque whale oil could not be sold. Basque whaling collapsed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and never recovered.
Cape Breton Island is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The St. Lawrence River is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, traversing Ontario and Quebec in Canada and New York in the United States. A section of the river demarcates the Canada–U.S. border.
Cabot Strait is in Atlantic Canada between Cape Ray, Newfoundland, and Cape North, Cape Breton Island. The strait, approximately 110 kilometres wide, is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence into the Atlantic Ocean, the others being the Strait of Belle Isle and Strait of Canso. It is named for the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto.
Chaleur Bay, also Chaleurs Bay, Bay of Chaleur, is an arm of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence located between Quebec and New Brunswick, Canada.
Anticosti is an island located in is located between the Jacques Cartier and Honguedo Straits, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in L'Île-d'Anticosti (Municipality), Minganie MRC, Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada.
The Jacques Cartier Strait is an arm of the sea located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, between the shore of Côte-Nord region and the North of Anticosti Island, in Quebec, Canada.
The 16th century in Canada saw the first contacts, since the Norsemen 500 years earlier, between the indigenous peoples in Canada living near the Atlantic coast and European fishermen, whalers, traders, and explorers.
Minganie is a regional county municipality on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Côte-Nord region, Quebec, Canada, its territory includes Anticosti Island.
Côte-Nord is an administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada.
Route 138 is a major highway in the Canadian province of Quebec, following the entire north shore of the St. Lawrence River past Montreal to the temporary eastern terminus in Kegashka on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The western terminus is in Elgin, at the border with New York State south-west of Montreal. Part of this highway is known as the Chemin du Roy, or King's Highway, which is one of the oldest highways in Canada.
Baie-Trinité is part of the Manicouagan Regional County Municipality, in Côte-Nord region, Quebec province, Canada.
Mingan Archipelago National Park Reserve or Mingan Archipelago Heritage Site bathes in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the administrative region of Côte-Nord, in Minganie RCM, Havre-Saint -Pierre municipality, facing Anticosti Island.
Havre-Saint-Pierre is a municipality located on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Côte-Nord region, Minganie RCM, Quebec, Canada.
Blanc-Sablon is a municipality located on the shore of Blanc-Sablon Bay, in the Strait of Belle-Isle, Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent RCM, Côte-Nord, Quebec, Canada.
Aguanish is a municipality located on the banks of the Aguanish River, on the north shore of Jacques Cartier Strait, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Minganie Regional County Municipality, Côte-Nord region, Quebec, Canada.
Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan is a municipality located on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Minganie Regional County Municipality (RCM), Côte-Nord region, Quebec, Canada.
The history of lighthouses in Canada dates to 1734.
St. Lawrence Estuary stretches from west to east for 655 km, from the outlet of Lake Saint Pierre to Pointe-des-Monts, where it becomes the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in Quebec, Canada.
The settlement of Basques in the Americas was the process of Basque emigration and settlement in the New World. Thus, there is a deep cultural and social Basque heritage in some places in the Americas, the most famous of which being Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Central America, Guatemala and Antioquia, Colombia.
Île aux Œufs is an island on the north shore of St. Lawrence River located in Port-Cartier, Quebec, Canada. It is a 19-hectare rocky island resting on a Precambrian bedrock, located two kilometers east of the mainland shore, about five kilometers from the hamlet of Pointe-aux-Anglais and forty kilometers from Pointe-des-Monts. It is mainly covered in balsam fir and includes the fourth-largest colony of common eiders in the St. Lawrence Estuary, as well as a colony of Double-crested Cormorants.
This lighthouse is located in Baie-Trinité, in the hamlet of Pointe-des-Monts; it was classified as a monument and historic site on September 8, 1965.
A River, Estuaries, a Gulf: The Great Hydrographic Divisions of the St. Lawrence
The area represents one of the largest and most productive estuarine/marine ecosystems in Canada and in the world.
the Gulf must be considered a complete and coherent systern: for example, what happens in the Gaspé current cannot be completely isolated from the phenomena that occur elsewhere. The degree of interdependence of the various areas remains to be explored.
. . . can be divided into three broad sections: the freshwater river, which extends from Lake Ontario to just outside the city of Quebec; the St. Lawrence estuary, which extends from Quebec to Anticosti Island; and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which leads into the Atlantic Ocean
According to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, a line from the mouth of Rivière St-Jean on the north shore past the western tip of Île d'Anticosti to Cap des Rosiers on Gaspé marks the end of the river and the beginning of the gulf.
Built on a rocky outcrop that forms an islet at high tide, the lighthouse bears witness to a time when navigation in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was perilous.
The first lighthouse, completed in 1830, had walls six feet thick at the base, tapering to two feet at the lantern deck.20
The Port of Sept-Îles is one of the largest ports in Canada, with world-class companies on the outskirts of the Bay of Sept-Îles
Anticosti is the best natural laboratory in the world for the study of fossils and sedimentary strata from the first mass extinction of life at the end of the Ordovician period
... located on Newfoundland's beautiful Southwest Coast. Just 40 minutes away from Port aux Basques
Video and map of attractions and services
Sixteenth-century cartographers, historians and memorialists were most often inspired by the Spanish and Italian translations of the Brief récit, and not by the original French published in 1545 to impose the toponym Gulf of St. Lawrence
These points serve as a boundary between the Estuary of the St. Lawrence River upstream and the much wider Gulf of St. Lawrence downstream
More than 2,200 species frequent these waters, including species at risk such as the beluga whale, the blue whale and the Barrow's goldeneye.
We have achieved victories for marine mammals around the world and work to make the oceans safe for whales, dolphins and marine life.
The North Atlantic right whale is an endangered species - Over the coming months, the Government of Canada will meet with representatives of the fishing and shipping industries, Aboriginal communities, whale experts and scientists, as well as the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The different species of seals and whales are all mammal species. © GREMM
The principal study areas include the Quebec North Shore in the Mingan Island / Anticosti region, the Gaspe Peninsula and St. Lawrence Estuary.
... so named in 1934 by the Quebec Geography Commission, on the occasion of the celebration of the fourth centenary of the first trip to Canada by the Saint-Malo explorer Jacques Cartier.
In addition to Grande Bay, this arm of the sea had notably borne the names of Friar Lewis, on maps from 1505, then Gulf of Chasteaulx, Charles Streights and Passage du Nord which a cartographer describes as "subject to Glaces" later in the 16th and during the 17th century.
St. Paul Island presents the only danger in the Cabot strait. Mariners are advised to navigate with caution during periods of reduced visibility.
From George Bay to Chedabucto Bay
The Strait is relatively narrow, varying in width from 800 m to 2,000 m (2,600 to 6,600 ft.), although it is most commonly 1,600 m (1 mile) wide throughout the 27 km (17 mi.) length.
Although blocked in the 1950's by the Canso Causeway, Canso Strait could potentially be a transport pathway for the spread of Malpeque Disease
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: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)The mile long eighty foot wide man-made causeway is known as the deepest in the world
In the absence of decisive, first-hand documents, historians and cartographers can only assert probabilities.
The Gulf of St. Lawrence contains a wide range of hydrodynamic conditions including seasonal ice cover, polynyas, fronts, gyres, freshwater input and influences, and large seasonal variations in vertical stratification.
body of water covering about 60,000 square miles (155,000 square km) at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. The reefs on these surfaces, coupled with the hazards of fog and ice, have caused a large number of shipwrecks.
Limits of Oceans and Seas
As I stepped ashore onto a blanket-size piece of sand, I realized I was probably trespassing; landing on the island requires an official permit from the Canadian coast guard.
There are 37 national parks and 11 national park reserves in Canada that represent 31 of Canada's 39 terrestrial natural regions and protect approximately 343,377 square kilometers of lands in Canada.
National Parks of Canada, search by province or territory
Protected areas are also recognized as an essential tool for adaptation to climate change. In particular, they allow carbon to be stored.
Protected areas register database, 2024 Ministry of Environment and Ecological reference framework, 2018 adapted
The Register of Protected Areas in Quebec constitutes a unique and integrated reference for Quebec in terms of protected areas, both within the meaning of the Natural Heritage Conservation Act and the recommendations of the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN).
We must manage the Gulf fishery as a biological reality, not as a battlefield for provincial ambitions
The Aboriginal people were the first to benefit from the abundant resources of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence: water, game, fish and marine mammals.
At the time of contact with the first Europeans, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians occupied a territory that extended from the mouth of Lake Ontario to the Cap Tourmente area, near Quebec City, with a southward extension to the northern tip of Lake Champlain, as well as seasonal extensions into the estuary and the gulf of St. Lawrence. D