Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Waves roll in along the Gulf of St. Lawrence's rugged North Shore.
Quebec's rugged North Shore is deeply indented with many bays and inlets and the estuaries of brash rivers
such as the Moise that spill from the Precambrian Shield and fan out to form large deltas. The cold Labrador
Current enters through the Strait of Belle Isle and imparts an Arctic character to the waters, which is also re-
flected in the flora and fauna on land. Cold water fishes, such as Atlantic herring, capelin, Atlantic cod, Arctic
cod, Greenland halibut, and redfish, are common, and Atlantic salmon, brook trout, and rainbow smelt run up
the many rivers. Juvenile fishes are dominated by capelin, an important food item for the 200,000 seabirds that
nest in small colonies on the North Shore cliffs, including a disjunct colony of Caspian terns at Île à la Brume
on the lower North Shore.
In recent decades, researchers have discovered that not only beluga whales frequent this coast. At least
twenty species of cetaceans have been observed in the region during the ice-free months, including baleen spe-
cies—fin, minke, humpback, and blue whales—as well as toothed whales such as harbor porpoises, Atlantic
white-sided dolphins, and white-beaked dolphins. The area around the Mingan Archipelago seems to be partic-
ularly important to blue whales. Studies carried out by the Mingan Island Cetacean Study group have demon-
strated that individual whales regularly return to the area between the Mingans and the Saguenay River.
