The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

s south-east of the island of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting

Atlantic cod The Atlantic cod (: cod; ''Gadus morhua'') is a fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as '' cod'' or ''codling''.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 in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida and up the eastern coastline of the United States, then veers east near 36°N latitude (North Carolin ...

here, often causing extreme foggy conditions. 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

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

grounds in the world.

Fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

species include

lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

. The area also supports large colonies of

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s such as northern gannets, shearwaters and sea ducks and various sea

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

s such as seals,

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

s and

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

s. 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.

History

Extensive glaciation took place in the area of the Grand Banks during the

last glacial maximum The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Last Glacial Coldest Period, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period where ice sheets were at their greatest extent between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. Ice sheets covered m ...

. 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. GrandBanks23

While no

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

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 L'Anse aux Meadows () is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse colonization of North America, Norse settlement dating to approximately 1,000 years ago. The site is located on the northernmost tip of the island of Newf ...

in 1000 CE and

John Cabot John Cabot ( ; 1450 – 1499) was an Italians, Italian navigator and exploration, explorer. His 1497 voyage to the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England, Henry VII, King of England is the earliest known Europe ...

's transatlantic crossing in 1497, some evidence suggests that voyagers from the Basque Region and England (specifically from

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

) and others preceded Cabot. 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 France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

pioneered fishing there, followed by vessels from

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, while ships from

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

were scarce in the early years. 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. The fish stocks became important for the early European-settler economies of eastern Canada and

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. 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 A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

that struck the south coast of

, claiming 29 lives on the Burin Peninsula. Technological advances in fishing (such as using large factory-ships and sonar), as well as geopolitical disputes over territorial sea and

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

(EEZ) boundaries, led to

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

and a serious decline in the fish stocks of the Grand Banks from around 1990. The Canadian Grand Banks fishery was closed in 1993.

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's EEZ 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 Saint Pierre and Miquelon ( ), officially the Territorial Collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon (), is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, located near the Canada, Canadian prov ...

occupies a pin-shaped section at the west edge of the Grand Banks, with the radius head of the pin surrounding the islands and the needle heading south for .

Geological research

Canada is performing the hydrographic and

geological Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

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 The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 169 sov ...

(UNCLOS).

Petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

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. However, the harsh environment on the Grand Banks also led to the '' Ocean Ranger'' disaster.

Climate change

The Northwest Atlantic Ocean is undergoing long-term warming from

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

. The surface water temperatures of the Newfoundland Shelf have increased by 0.13 °C per decade from 1950 to 2016. Depth-averaged ocean temperatures (0–175 m) have not shown a warming trend during that same period.

Culture

Semi-fictional depictions of fishermen working on the Grand Banks can be found in

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...

'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 Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...

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''. 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.

References

External links

The Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap

* ttp://www.nfb.ca/film/Cries_from_the_Deep/ Watch ''Cries from the Deep''��a Jacques Cousteau documentary on the Grand Banks {{Coord, 45, 14, 13, N, 50, 59, 21.2, W, scale:5000000, display=title Fishing areas of the Atlantic Ocean Landforms of Newfoundland and Labrador Marine ecoregions Undersea banks of the Atlantic Ocean Oceanography of Canada