__NOTOC__ The Saguenay River () is a major

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, Canada. It drains Lac Saint-Jean in the

Laurentian Highlands The Laurentian Upland (or Laurentian Highlands) is a physiographic region which, when referred to as the "Laurentian Region" or the Grenville geological province, is recognized by Natural Resources Canada as one of five provinces of the larger C ...

, leaving at Alma and running east; the city of Saguenay is located on the river. It drains into the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. Tadoussac, founded as a French colonial trading post in 1600, is located on the northeast bank at this site. The river has a very high flow-rate and is bordered by steep

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

s associated with the Saguenay Graben.

Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

waters flow in its

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Icel ...

upriver as far as Chicoutimi (about 100 kilometres). Many

Beluga whales The beluga whale () (''Delphinapterus leucas'') is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus ''Delphinapterus''. It is also known as the whi ...

breed in the cold waters at its mouth, making Tadoussac a popular site for

whale watching Whale watching is the practice of observing whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in their natural habitat. Whale watching is mostly a recreational activity (cf. birdwatching), but it can also serve scientific and/or educational purposes.Hoyt, E. 2 ...

and sea kayaking;

Greenland shark The Greenland shark (''Somniosus microcephalus''), also known as the gurry shark, grey shark, or by the Kalaallisut name ''eqalussuaq'', is a large shark of the family Somniosidae ("sleeper sharks"), closely related to the Pacific and souther ...

s also frequent the depths of the river. The area of the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence is protected by the Saguenay–St. Lawrence Marine Park, one of Canada's

national parks A national park is a natural park in use for conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individua ...

History

The Saguenay River was used as an important trade route into the interior for the First Nations people of the area. During the French colonization of the Americas, the river became a major route for the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

. The French established Tadoussac, France's first trading post in Canada, in 1600. They named the river for the legendary Kingdom of Saguenay. It is the namesake of Saguenay Herald at the Canadian Heraldic Authority. Beginning in the 19th century, the river was exploited for transport and power by the

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply cha ...

and

pulp and paper The pulp and paper industry comprises companies that use wood as raw material and produce pulp, paper, paperboard and other cellulose-based products. Manufacturing process The pulp is fed to a paper machine where it is formed as a paper web a ...

industries. A dam on the upper Saguenay generates

hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined an ...

for local industries, such as

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

smelting and paper mills. Severe flooding of the Saguenay's tributary rivers from July 18 to 21, 1996, devastated the region in one of Canada's costliest natural disasters, the

Saguenay Flood The Saguenay flood (french: Déluge du Saguenay) was a series of flash floods on July 19 and 20, 1996 that hit the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, Canada. It was the biggest overland flood in 20th-century Canadian history. History ...

. However, an unexpected effect of the flood was to cover the heavily contaminated

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand ...

s at the bottom of the river with of new, relatively clean sediments. Research has shown that the old sediments are no longer a threat to

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

s.Project Saguenay
/ref>

Geography

The Saguenay originates in Lac Saint-Jean at Alma. There are two channels: La Petite Décharge and La Grande Décharge, on which is built the dam Île Maligne hydroelectric plant. The island formed by these two rivers is part of the municipality of Alma. At this place, the water is freshwater. Three bridges cross the "Petite Décharge" and two others cross the "Grande Décharge". It is when these two rivers meet just east of Alma that the Saguenay really begins. It begins in the form of a reservoir several kilometers long, unlike the rapids and powerful falls that dotted the river before the erection of dams. At Shipshaw, Quebec, the Saguenay splits again in two. On the northern watercourse, there is the Shipshaw hydroelectric station and, on the south side, the Chute-à-Caron power plant. It is here that the Aluminum Bridge is located. Between Chicoutimi and Jonquière, the two come together to form the Saguenay. It becomes accessible to navigation at this point. Moreover, Chicoutimi means "how deep is it" Pierre-Georges Roy, "The Geographical Names of the Province of Quebec", Lévis, Le Soleil, 1906, . in Montagnais. In downtown Chicoutimi, the and the are located. At Tadoussac, a ferry provides the link between Tadoussac and

Baie-Sainte-Catherine Baie-Sainte-Catherine, Quebec is a town in Quebec, Canada. The municipal's territory extends along the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence rivers, whereas the town itself is on the small St. Catherine Bay, which is located at the confluence of these tw ...

Tributaries

Riverside municipalities

Notes

External links