Grand Banks of Newfoundland
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordfish, haddock and capelin, as well as shellfish, seabirds and sea mammals.
Significance
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater
The mixing of these waters and the shape of the ocean bottom lifts nutrients to the surface. These conditions helped to create one of the richest
]Overfishing in the late 20th century caused the collapse of several species, particularly cod, leading to the closure of the Canadian Grand Banks fishery in 1992.[citation needed]
History
Extensive glaciation took place in the area of the Grand Banks during the
While no archaeological evidence for a European presence near the Grand Banks survives from the period between the short-lived Greenland Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1000 CE and John Cabot's transatlantic crossing in 1497, some evidence suggests that voyagers from the Basque Region[3][need quotation to verify] and England (specifically from Bristol)[4] and others[5] preceded Cabot.[6] In the 15th century some texts refer to a land called Bacalao, the land of the codfish, which is possibly Newfoundland. Within a few years of Cabot's voyage the existence of fishing grounds on the Grand Banks became generally known in Europe. Ships from France and Portugal pioneered fishing there, followed by vessels from Spain, while ships from England were scarce in the early years.[7] This soon changed, especially after Bernard Drake's Newfoundland Expedition in 1585, which virtually wiped out the Spanish and Portuguese fishing-industries in this area.[8] The fish stocks became important for the early European-settler economies of eastern Canada and New England.[citation needed]
On 18 November 1929, the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake struck the southwestern part of the Grand Banks bordering the Laurentian Channel, causing an underwater landslide which resulted in extensive damage to transatlantic cables and generated a rare Atlantic tsunami that struck the south coast of Newfoundland, claiming 29 lives on the Burin Peninsula.[9]
Technological advances in fishing (such as using large
Geological research
Canada is performing the hydrographic and geological surveys necessary for claiming the entire continental shelf off eastern Canada, as allowed by the terms of the latest United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).[11]
Petroleum reserves have also been discovered and a number of oil fields are under development in this region, most notably the Hibernia, Terra Nova, and White Rose projects.[12] However, the harsh environment on the Grand Banks also led to the Ocean Ranger disaster.[13]
Climate change
The Northwest Atlantic Ocean is undergoing long-term warming from
Culture
Semi-fictional depictions of fishermen working on the Grand Banks can be found in Rudyard Kipling's novel Captains Courageous (1897) and in Sebastian Junger's non-fiction book The Perfect Storm (1997). The Grand Banks are also portrayed in the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October. Herman Melville described passing through the Banks as a young sailor on his first voyage in his autobiographical novel Redburn: His First Voyage (1849), where he saw whales and a haunting shipwreck with weeks-dead sailors still on board. It is also featured in The Grey Seas Under, a non-fiction book by Canadian author Farley Mowat about the ocean-going maritime salvage tug Foundation Franklin.[citation needed]
The Canadian patriotic song "Something to Sing About" opens with the line "I have walked 'cross the sand on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland." However, as the banks are underwater, it is impossible to walk across them in reality.[16]
See also
- Banks dory
- Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery
- Oil spill
- Turbot War
- West Greenland Current
References
- S2CID 259958943.
- .
- ISBN 978-0-14-027501-8.
- ^ "European Exploration: From Earliest Times to 1497". Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage Web Site Project. Retrieved 2012-01-05.
- ISBN 978-0-8047-4962-6.
- ISBN 978-0-14-027501-8.
- ^ "European Exploration: From Earliest Times to 1497". Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
- ISBN 978-078-842310-9.
- ISBN 978-1-4020-1349-2. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
- ^
Zugarramurdi, Aurora; Parin, María A. & Lupin, Hector M. (1995). Economic Engineering Applied to the Fishery Industry. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. p. 11. ISBN 92-5103738-8. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
In 1993, fishing in the Grand Banks off Canada was closed due to overfishing.
- ^ "Sovereignty and UNCLOS". Government of Canada. 8 May 2019. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- ^ "Significant Discoveries" (PDF). Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- ^ "The Loss of the Ocean Ranger, 15 February 1982". Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador. Retrieved 14 April 2022.
- ^ Colbourne, E. B; Fitzpatrick, C. "Station 27 Oceanographic Monitoring Station—A Long History" (PDF). engr.mun.ca. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-19. Retrieved 2021-02-10.
- ^ a b Bush, E.; Lemmen, D.S., eds. (2019). Canada's Changing Climate Report (PDF) (Report). Government of Canada. p. 362.
- ^ "CanadaInfo: Symbols, Facts, & Lists: Anthems and Other Patriotic Songs". www.craigmarlatt.com. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
External links
- The Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap
- Government response to the standing committee on fisheries and oceans' tenth report
- Watch Cries from the Deep—a Jacques Cousteau documentary on the Grand Banks