Group of underwater plateaus south-east of Newfoundland, Canada
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 plateaus south-east of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from 15 to 91 metres (50 to 300 ft) in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream here, often causing extreme foggy conditions.[1]
Extensive glaciation took place in the area of the Grand Banks during the last glacial maximum. By approximately 13,000 years ago the majority of the ice had melted, leaving the Grand Banks exposed as several islands extending for hundreds of kilometres. It is believed that rising sea levels submerged these around 8,000 years ago.[2]
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]
Technological advances in fishing (such as using large factory-ships and sonar), as well as geopolitical disputes over territorial sea and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundaries, led to overfishing and a serious decline in the fish stocks of the Grand Banks from around 1990. The Canadian Grand Banks fishery was closed in 1993.[10]
Canada's EEZ currently[update] covers the majority of the Grand Banks except for the lucrative "nose" (eastern extremity, near the Flemish Cap) and "tail" (southern extremity) of the fishing bank. The 1783 Treaty of Paris gave the United States shared rights to fish in these waters, but that section of the Treaty is no longer in force. The exclusive economic zone of the French territory Saint Pierre and Miquelon occupies a pin-shaped section at the west edge of the Grand Banks, with the 22 kilometres (12 nmi; 14 mi) radius head of the pin surrounding the islands and the needle heading south for 348 km (188 nmi; 216 mi).[citation needed]
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]
The Northwest Atlantic Ocean is undergoing long-term warming from anthropogenic climate change. The surface water temperatures of the Newfoundland Shelf have increased by 0.13 °C per decade from 1950 to 2016.[15] Depth-averaged ocean temperatures (0–175 m) have not shown a warming trend during that same period.[15]
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]
^Shaw, John (2006). "Palaeogeography of Atlantic Canadian Continental Shelves from the Last Glacial Maximum to the Present, with an Emphasis on Flemish Cap". Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery Science. 37: 119–126. CiteSeerX10.1.1.584.1310. doi:10.2960/J.v37.m565.
^Prowse, D. W (2007). A History of Newfoundland from the English, Colonial and Foreign Record. Heritage Books. pp. 79–81. ISBN978-078-842310-9.
^Yalçiner, Ahmet C.; Pelinovsky, Efim N.; Okal, Emile & Synolakis, Costas E., eds. (2003). Submarine Landslides and Tsunamis. Istanbul, Turkey: Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 177–178. ISBN978-1-4020-1349-2. 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. ISBN92-5103738-8. Retrieved 8 November 2019. In 1993, fishing in the Grand Banks off Canada was closed due to overfishing.