Labrador Coast Research Articles

Expanded Range Limits of Boreal Birds in the Torngat Mountains of Northern Labrador

The Torngat Mountains lie at the southeastern limit of the Canadian Arctic in northern Labrador, and bird distributions in the region are poorly understood. I visited the Torngat Mountains every summer from 2008 to 2016 and recorded all birds observed. Several boreal bird species were widespread and breeding in the region, representing expansion of known ranges by 100–350 km north along the Labrador coast and 40–90 km east from Ungava Bay. Shrub thickets have expanded dramatically in the Torngat Mountains since the 1980s; thus, these observations may reflect range expansion by boreal birds in response to increased habitat availability.

Common Eider and large gull and nesting associations in coastal Labrador

Apparent nesting associations between avian egg predators and their prey have received much interest, with gulls and waterfowl receiving considerable attention. We examined the co-occurrence of breeding large gulls (Herring Gull (Larus argentatus Pontoppidan, 1763) and Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus L., 1758)) and Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima L., 1758) along the coast of Labrador from 1998 to 2003. Nest counts for large gulls and eiders were undertaken by ground crews on 45–109 islands each year, counting 79–283 and 721–3424 nests annually, respectively. Gulls were more likely to nest on an island with nesting eiders (69.4%) than without nesting eiders (38.4%), and the probability and numbers of gulls nesting on an island increased as eider colony size increased. Large gulls were 1.76 times more likely to occupy islands that had nesting eiders in the previous year, while eiders were equally likely to colonize islands that did or did not have nesting gulls in the previous year. Eiders were no more likely to abandon islands that had nesting gulls in the previous year. In subarctic coastal landscapes, large gulls appear to preferentially nest in association with nesting eiders, while eiders appear not to avoid nesting islands based on the previous presence of large gulls.

Artificial lights improve the catchability of snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) traps

This study investigated the behaviour and commercial catchability of snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) in response to different low-powered LED lights under laboratory and field conditions. We created a novel choice-experiment in a laboratory setting in which we investigated the behaviour of snow crab in response to coloured LED lights. The results showed that snow crab movement was dependent on light colour, with animals choosing to move toward blue and white lights, away from purple lights, and no detectable effect for green and red lights. We then conducted two field experiments to investigate the effect of the same LED lights on the catch rates of commercial traps during the 2016 snow crab fishery on the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador. Results from the first field experiment showed that adding white and purple LED lights into baited traps significantly improved Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) by 77% and 47% respectively. Results from the second field experiment showed that unbaited traps equipped with only LED lights (no bait), could also catch snow crab in comparable amounts to traditional baited traps, with soak time and depth explaining some of the variation in CPUE. Taken together, these experiments suggest that fishing enterprises can improve their catching performance and profitability by adding LED lights to their traps, or by using LED lights as a bait replacement.

Ocean migration of pop-up satellite archival tagged Atlantic salmon from the Miramichi River in Canada

The ocean migration of 16 post-spawned adult Atlantic salmon [Salmo salar L.] from the Miramichi River, Canada, tagged concurrently with pop-up satellite archival tags and acoustic transmitters was reconstructed using a Hidden Markov Model. Individuals exclusively utilized areas within the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Labrador Sea, and showed little overlap with known distributions of European stocks. During the migration, individuals were generally associated with surface waters and spent >67% of the time in the upper 10 m of the water column. The Atlantic salmon occupied greater depths and showed more diving activity during the day than during the night, with a few exceptions. Although residing in the Gulf of St Lawrence, individuals used different geographical areas and displayed frequent dives to shallow depths (10–30 m). All fish that entered the Labrador Sea (n = 8) migrated through the Strait of Belle Isle (767 km from the river mouth), after spending 41–60 d in the Gulf of St Lawrence. After exiting the Gulf of St Lawrence, individuals utilized different areas in the Labrador Sea, and overlaps in spatial distributions among the individuals were largely limited to the Labrador Coast. This variation in area use was accompanied by individual differences in diving behaviour, with maximum depths recorded for individuals ranging from 32 to 909 m. Dives to depths exceeding 150 m were only performed by four individuals and mainly restricted to the central Labrador Sea (areas with water depths >1000 m). Vertical movements were shallower and resembled those in the Gulf of St Lawrence when fish migrated through shallower coastal areas along the Labrador Shelf. In conclusion, the large overall variation in migration routes suggests that post-spawners from the Miramichi River encounter different habitats during their ocean migration and that the growth and survival of adults may depend on ecological conditions in multiple regions, both in the Gulf of St Lawrence and in the Labrador Sea.

Labrador Inuit on the Hunt: Seasonal Patterns, Techniques, and Animals as They Appear in the Early Moravian Diaries

In 1769 an Order in Council from the British government enabled the Moravians to settle in Labrador. The missionaries laid the boundary stones for their land (ca. 405 km2) in the next year, and established their first mission station (Nain) on the Labrador coast in 1771. The brethren’s accounts of their experiences with the Inuit in the Nain diaries include, besides religious issues, weather and travel reports and descriptions of Inuit hunting grounds and hunting techniques for the fauna of the region. This article focuses on their diary depictions of the two main prey species: the seal and the caribou. Consideration is also given to seasonal variation and availability of these animals during the early years of the mission; data were collected for the years 1771 through 1778. Several clues in the Moravian diaries, which went unrecognized by the missionaries, point to interactions and transformations between human and nonhuman beings (animals, spirits). These indications corroborate the spiritual transgression of category boundaries as an essential feature of traditional hunting methods.

Assessing the effects of climate change and land use on northern Labrador forest stands based on paleoecological data

We reconstructed the late Holocene vegetation of the Nain region (northern Labrador, northeastern Canada) in order to assess the influence of climate and historic land use on past shifts in forest composition. Chronostratigraphy was used in combination with macrofossil and pollen data from monoliths sampled from four peatlands. Paleoecological reconstructions produced a vegetation history spanning 4900 years for the Nain region that is largely concordant with other studies in Labrador. An initial open forest tundra phase was followed by an increase in tree cover at around 2800 cal yr BP. Paludification began ∼200 cal yr BP. A decline in Picea and its subsequent disappearance from most of the sites occurred ∼170 cal yr BP (AD 1780) in a period of relatively mild conditions during the Little Ice Age. This event was followed by the establishment of Larix laricina in the region. Local anthropogenic factors are likely responsible for these later developments, as they were not observed in other regional studies. The period around AD 1780 corresponds to the establishment of the Moravian missionaries on the Labrador coast, which increased the need for fuel and lumber. We conclude that changes in land use are reflected in the patterns of vegetation and hydrological change at the study sites.

Assessing polar bear (Ursus maritimus) population structure in the Hudson Bay region using SNPs

Defining subpopulations using genetics has traditionally used data from microsatellite markers to investigate population structure; however, single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have emerged as a tool for detection of fine‐scale structure. In Hudson Bay, Canada, three polar bear (Ursus maritimus) subpopulations (Foxe Basin (FB), Southern Hudson Bay (SH), and Western Hudson Bay (WH)) have been delineated based on mark–recapture studies, radiotelemetry and satellite telemetry, return of marked animals in the subsistence harvest, and population genetics using microsatellites. We used SNPs to detect fine‐scale population structure in polar bears from the Hudson Bay region and compared our results to the current designations using 414 individuals genotyped at 2,603 SNPs. Analyses based on discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) and STRUCTURE support the presence of four genetic clusters: (i) Western—including individuals sampled in WH, SH (excluding Akimiski Island in James Bay), and southern FB (south of Southampton Island); (ii) Northern—individuals sampled in northern FB (Baffin Island) and Davis Strait (DS) (Labrador coast); (iii) Southeast—individuals from SH (Akimiski Island in James Bay); and (iv) Northeast—individuals from DS (Baffin Island). Population structure differed from microsatellite studies and current management designations demonstrating the value of using SNPs for fine‐scale population delineation in polar bears.

A hierarchical selective ensemble randomized neural network hybridized with heuristic feature selection for estimation of sea-ice thickness

In this paper, a hybrid intelligent system is developed to estimate sea-ice thickness along the Labrador coast of Canada. The developed intelligent system consists of two main parts. The first part is a heuristic feature selection algorithm used for processing a database to select the most effective features. The second part is a hierarchical selective ensemble randomized neural network (HSE-RNN) that is used to create a nonlinear map between the selected features and sea-ice thickness. The required data for processing have been collected from two sensors, i.e. moderate resolution imaging spectro-radiometer (MODIS), and advanced microwave scanning radiometer-earth (AMSR-E) observing system. To evaluate the computational advantages of the proposed intelligent framework, it is given brightness temperatures data captured at two different frequencies (low frequency, 6.9GHz, and high frequency, 36.5GHz) in addition to both atmospheric and oceanic variables from forecasting models. The obtained results demonstrate the computational power of the developed intelligent algorithm for the estimation of sea-ice thickness along the Labrador coast.

Missionaries, merchants, and Inuit entrepreneurs: An examination of trade relations along the Labrador coast

The study of Inuit-European contact in Labrador has often divided the coast into north and south, creating a dichotomy that ignores Inuit mobility and emphasizes the arrival and placement of Europeans along the coast. This has caused some researchers to focus too heavily on missionary trade involvement in the north while ignoring merchant activity in the south, and vice versa. This paper seeks to provide further evidence in support of Inuit entrepreneurs as catalysts for the abundance and diversity of European-made trade goods along the coast, rather than the missionaries or merchants themselves. This study presents an analysis of four Inuit dwellings dating from the mid-18th through early 19th centuries, both pre- and post- missionary arrival, from two distinct regions: Nain and Hamilton Inlet. The results show no significant difference in the quantity of trade goods between the two regions, either before or after the arrival of Moravian missionaries. There may have been another factor at work: influential Inuit traders who were a key component of the trade network, who likely rose to entrepreneurial status prior to the arrival of missionaries, and who continued to move items along the coast thereafter. Thus, the increasing European presence did not largely affect the trade network that had emerged by the early 18th century, aside from providing the Inuit population with access to additional resources and more options.

Bretons, Basques, and Inuit in Labrador and northern Newfoundland: The control of maritime resources in the 16th and 17th centuries

Early Euro-Inuit contacts in Atlantic Canada raise a complex issue in the ethnohistory of resource exploitation. In the 16th century, Breton, Norman, and Basque crews developed a seasonal salt-cod fishery on the coasts of northern Newfoundland and southern Labrador, in about the same period that the Inuit moved southwards along the Labrador coast. The Basques also exploited the Strait of Belle Isle, between Newfoundland and Labrador, for shore-based whaling. Sometime before 1620, Europeans then appear to have withdrawn from Labrador until about 1680, when Canadian merchants based in Quebec began to exploit the Strait for salmon and seals, while French migratory crews edged northwards again from Newfoundland. European withdrawal from Labrador largely coincided with a long-running guerrilla war, waged by the Inuit against Breton and Basque fishermen exploiting Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. The chronological coincidence suggests that the movement of Inuit into southern Labrador by the end of the 16th century may well have motivated Europeans to avoid this coast through much of the 17th century. French attitudes to the Labrador Inuit can be contextualized by comparison with contemporary understandings of Euro-Inuit relations elsewhere. Inuit attitudes to Europeans are harder to assess but recognition of their struggle for access to resources is a step towards an appreciation of historical Inuit agency.

The Inuit archaeology of the Quebec Lower North Shore

This paper summarizes a decade of archaeological research demonstrating evidence for periods of year-round Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Excavations at several winter villages replicate settlement patterns at sod house sites in central Labrador, including continuation of a traditional Inuit subsistence and domestic economy while incorporating European materials and artifacts. Finds at the Hare Harbour site on Petit Mécatina Island suggest active Inuit collaboration with a European (probably Basque) whaling and fishing station. The Hare Harbour site is a unique early instance of Inuit-European economic and social enterprise. In the early 1700s the Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore came to an abrupt end due to economic competition and hostilities with European and Indian groups that forced Inuit to abandon the coast and retreat north to the core area of Inuit settlement on the central Labrador coast.

L’héritage culturel inuit au Labrador méridional au XIXe siècle

Dans le cadre de cet article, la sous-aire culturelle du Labrador méridional comprend les régions du Sud-Labrador, du détroit de Belle-Isle et de la Basse-Côte-Nord du golfe du Saint-Laurent. Après avoir documenté la présence historique d’Inuit et de Métis euro-inuit dans cette région au XIXe siècle, l’héritage culturel inuit maintenu et transmis à cette période est exposé en huit thèmes: le mode de vie généraliste; le double habitat et la transhumance; le groupe résidentiel; la maison de tourbe; l’économie du phoque; l’économie commerciale; les moyens de transport; les vêtement et accessoires en peau de phoque. Cet héritage culturel inuit combiné à l’héritage amérindien et à l’héritage euro-canadien a contribué à façonner la culture métisse unique qui est celle du Labrador méridional.

A modular ridge randomized neural network with differential evolutionary distributor applied to the estimation of sea ice thickness

In this paper, a sequential intelligent methodology is implemented to estimate the sea-ice thickness along the Labrador coast of Canada based on spatio-temporal information from the moderate resolution imaging spectro-radiometer, and the advanced microwave scanning radiometer-earth sensors. The proposed intelligent model comprises two separate sub-systems. In the first part of the model, clustering is performed to divide the studied region into a set of sub-regions, based on a number of features. Thereafter, this learning system serves as a distributor to dispatch the proper information to a set of estimation modules. The estimation modules utilize ridge randomized neural network to create a map between a set of features and sea-ice thickness. The proposed modular intelligent system is best suited for the considered case study as the amount of collected spatio-temporal information is large. To ascertain the veracity of the proposed technique, two different spatio-temporal databases are considered, which include the remotely sensed brightness temperature data at two different frequencies (low frequency, 6.9 GHz, and high frequency, 36.5 GHz) in addition to both atmospheric and oceanic variables coming from validated forecasting models. To numerically prove the accuracy and computational robustness of the designed sequential learning system, two different sets of comparative tests are conducted. In the first phase, the emphasis is put on evaluating the efficacy of the proposed modular framework using different clustering methods and using different types of estimators at the heart of the estimation modules. Thereafter, the modular estimator is prepared with standard neural identifiers to prove to what extent the modular estimator can increase the accuracy and robustness of the estimation.

Seeing Icebergs and Inuit as Elemental Nature: An American Transcendentalist on and off the Coast of Labrador, 1864

In 1865 a series of Atlantic Monthly articles written by the Transcendentalist minister David Atwood Wasson described the voyage to Labrador organized by American landscape painter William Bradford. Bradford was inspired by the success of fellow Hudson River school artist Frederic Edwin Church’s monumental painting, The Icebergs (1861), and Wasson’s role was to generate publicity for what would be Bradford’s own “great picture,” Sealers Crushed by Icebergs. Wasson produced many colourful descriptions of the icebergs encountered on the voyage, but he also depicted the Labrador shorescape as the planet earth at the dawn of time and the Inuit of Hopedale as unevolved, pre-adamic man. This article suggests that Wasson’s racism and rejection of the benign, mystical Nature of first-generation Transcendentalists Thoreau and Emerson reflects the rise of evolutionary theory and the cultural impact of the American Civil War.

Spawning delays of northern capelin (Mallotus villosus) and recovery dynamics: A mismatch with ice-mediated spring bloom?

The capelin stock off the northeast coast of Newfoundland and southern Labrador collapsed in the early 1990s along with most of the finfish community. Among a host of concomitant physical and behavioral changes was the onset of delayed spawning, a phenomenon that has persisted for over two decades. From the mid-1990s onward, the Newfoundland and Labrador shelf has been warming with ice levels reduced in most years, generally leading to earlier spring plankton blooms. The delayed spawns and earlier blooms have resulted in an increased mismatch between plankton production and larval emergence, which we hypothesized could result in reduced early-life survival and prolonged stock recovery. Among indices associated with the mismatch, including time between blooms and spawning, composition and abundance of zooplankton during early ontogeny, and sea surface temperature and ice coverage, potential linkages were found with first year capelin survival. Increased capelin productivity in recent years has been associated with an increase in preferable and total zooplankton abundance and a decreasing trend in the mismatch with the spring bloom. A generalized linear model incorporating a match–mismatch index and stage I–IV calanus copepods explained 82% of the variance associated with annual age 0 capelin abundance estimates since stock collapse. A central mechanism underlying improvements in capelin productivity appears to be a general reduction in ice coverage associated with a recent warm oceanographic regime that reached record high levels in 2011.

Spreading of Denmark Strait Overflow Water in the Western Subpolar North Atlantic: Insights from Eddy-Resolving Simulations with a Passive Tracer

AbstractThe oceanic deep circulation is shared between concentrated deep western boundary currents (DWBCs) and broader interior pathways, a process that is sensitive to seafloor topography. This study investigates the spreading and deepening of Denmark Strait overflow water (DSOW) in the western subpolar North Atlantic using two ° eddy-resolving Atlantic simulations, including a passive tracer injected into the DSOW. The deepest layers of DSOW transit from a narrow DWBC in the southern Irminger Sea into widespread westward flow across the central Labrador Sea, which remerges along the Labrador coast. This abyssal circulation, in contrast to the upper levels of overflow water that remain as a boundary current, blankets the deep Labrador Sea with DSOW. Farther downstream after being steered around the abrupt topography of Orphan Knoll, DSOW again leaves the boundary, forming cyclonic recirculation cells in the deep Newfoundland basin. The deep recirculation, mostly driven by the meandering pathway of the upper North Atlantic Current, leads to accumulation of tracer offshore of Orphan Knoll, precisely where a local maximum of chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) inventory is observed. At Flemish Cap, eddy fluxes carry ~20% of the tracer transport from the boundary current into the interior. Potential vorticity is conserved as the flow of DSOW broadens at the transition from steep to less steep continental rise into the Labrador Sea, while around the abrupt topography of Orphan Knoll, potential vorticity is not conserved and the DSOW deepens significantly.

A journal of transactions and events during a residence of nearly sixteen years on the coast of Labrador containing many interesting particulars, both of the country and its inhabitants, not hitherto known. George Cartwright. 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3 vols. 287p, 505p, 248(+ 15)p. illustrated, softcover. ISBN 978-1-108-04160-7. (Reprint of 1792 edition. Cambridge Library Collection). £80 for complete set,

A journal of transactions and events during a residence of nearly sixteen years on the coast of Labrador containing many interesting particulars, both of the country and its inhabitants, not hitherto known. George Cartwright. 2012. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 3 vols. 287p, 505p, 248(+ 15)p. illustrated, softcover. ISBN 978-1-108-04160-7. (Reprint of 1792 edition. Cambridge Library Collection). £80 for complete set,

‘All in’: Snow crab, capitalization, and the future of small-scale fisheries in Newfoundland

The collapse of cod stocks off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador in the early 1990s has been widely identified as one of the greatest human-ecological catastrophes of the 20th century. In the aftermath of the crisis, heated debates took place about how the fishery should be structured in the future in order to facilitate the recovery of stocks and sustain coastal livelihoods. In the end, the trade union representing fishers and fish processing plant workers in the province proved successful in resisting pressures from fish processing companies to introduce full-scale privatization. It was also able to expand access to the lucrative snow crab fishery, thereby improving incomes for most remaining independent fishers in the province. Nevertheless, this paper argues that policy changes made shortly after cod moratorium, in combination with changing environmental, demographic, and market conditions, have created a situation which now threatens to undermine the capacity for small-scale fishing enterprises to remain independently owned and operated into the future.

Genetic structure of capelin (Mallotus villosus) in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.

Capelin (Mallotus villosus) is a commercially exploited, key forage-fish species found in the boreal waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans. We examined the population structure of capelin throughout their range in the Canadian northwest Atlantic Ocean using genetic-based methods. Capelin collected at ten beach and five demersal spawning locations over the period 2002 through 2008 (N = 3,433 fish) were genotyped using six polymorphic microsatellite loci. Temporally distinct samples were identified at three beach spawning locations: Chance Cove, Little Lawn and Straitsview, Newfoundland. Four capelin stocks are assumed for fisheries management in the northwest Atlantic Ocean based on meristics, morphometrics, tag returns, and seasonal distribution patterns. Our results suggested groupings that were somewhat different than the assumed structure, and indicate at least seven genetically defined populations arising from two ancestral populations. The spatial mosaic of capelin from each of the two basal cluster groups explains much of the observed geographic variability amongst neighbouring samples. The genetic-defined populations were resolved at Jost’s D est ≥ 0.01 and were composed of fish collected 1) in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 2) along the south and east coasts of Newfoundland, 3) along coastal northern Newfoundland and southern Labrador, 4) along coastal northern Labrador, 5) near the Saguenay River, and at two nearshore demersal spawning sites, 6) one at Grebes Nest off Bellevue Beach on the east coast of Newfoundland, and 7) one off the coast of Labrador at Domino Run. Moreover, the offshore demersal spawners on the Scotian Shelf and Southeast Shoal appeared to be related to the inshore demersal spawners at Grebes Nest and in Domino Run and to beach spawners from the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

New contributions in Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea petroleum exploration and development geoscience

Baffin Bay and Labrador Sea encompass a vast marine region straddling the international jurisdictions of Canada and Greenland (Fig. 1). Together, these marine bodies encompass more than 1 500 000 km2 and they are bounded by a vast and geographically-complicated shoreline characterized by long fiords and deep channels. Sea-ice forms in much of Baffin Bay in winter, while icebergs originating from glaciers descending from the Greenland icecap create a constant hazard across the marine region during summer. Although much of the surrounding coastline is precipitous, a significant extent of continental shelf is present in these marine basins, characterized by accumulations of clastic strata, principally of late Mesozoic to Cenozoic age. Recent assessments of petroleum potential of the region have suggested that Baffin Bay may hold 1555 MMbbl of oil and 9.3 TCF of gas (Gautier et al., 2011), while shelf areas of the Labrador Sea may contain recoverable resources of 4.2 TCF of natural gas and 123 MMbbl of oil (Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2000). Figure 1 Map of Baffin Bay/Labrador Sea region showing principal geographic features and areas of focus of the contributions in the Special Issue. BI = Bylot Island; DI = Disko Island. While onshore exposures of Mesozoic-Cenozoic strata are extremely rare along the Labrador coast, significant onshore successions are found in the Baffin Bay region on Nuussuaq Peninsula and Disko Island and adjacent areas of West Greenland, and on Bylot Island and adjacent areas of northeast Nunavut. These successions provide accessible outcrops that serve as analogues for stratigraphic sequences preserved in the offshore. While extensive study of the Greenland succession has been undertaken recently, and a comprehensive litho- and biostratigraphic framework for these rocks established (Dam et al., 2009), similar studies of the Canadian side of the Baffin Bay are vintage 1970s. As well, some …