![]() ![]() In fact, the season can extend even longer throughout the year. Like anything, good information will help people who want to find icebergs,” says Davis. Davis runs the Newfoundland Iceberg Reports group (a public social media group that’s 24,000 members and growing) and most icebergs pass in May and June, but the season is usually April through July, and we can get occasional icebergs earlier and later. Most pass hundreds of miles offshore,” says Diane Davis, a Gander resident with a summer home in Deep Bay, Fogo Island. “Only a small fraction of the icebergs that pass Newfoundland and Labrador come close enough to land to be seen. The icebergs migrate from the Arctic along the sub-Arctic Labrador coast, then to the north coast of Newfoundland along a route of the North Atlantic Ocean called ‘Iceberg Alley’. What might be considered a nuisance up north becomes something of a blessing down south, where locals and tourists alike hope to catch a glimpse of the former Greenlandic glaciers. Your support is essential to making journalism like this possible. “In many ports I sailed into in Greenland, bergs were a common sight all summer long and the Inuit up there paid them no mind but considered them a nuisance as they required cautious navigating around them and they often snarled fishing gear,” says Saunders. Icebergs are the more than 10,000-year-old ice (chips), hived off from glaciers (blocks), typically from Greenland. ![]() ‘Chip off the old block’ holds a literal meaning in Newfoundland and Labrador. Saunders is an 80-year-old Inuk fishing captain who says his Northern Labrador upbringing and six-decade-long fishing career has meant he’s “no stranger to icebergs.” “When we fished inshore for cod, Atlantic salmon and Arctic char, we would always get good hard tough ice by chopping chunks of bergs floating by in order to keep our catch fresh for the marketplace,” says Captain Alex Saunders from his home in Goose Bay, Labrador, in mid-March. For as little as $5 a month, you can fund the future of journalism in Newfoundland and Labrador. Your pay-what-you-can subscription or one-time donation provides a base of revenue to keep our bills paid and our contributors writing. There are several pieces,” she said.The Independent is 100% funded by its readers. However, if the ocean sees consistently warmer temperatures, icebergs will melt faster and they will be fewer icebergs reaching Newfoundland and Labrador. Marson said one situation is that there could be more icebergs breaking off of glaciers because they are melting faster. Marson said the icebergs in Iceberg Alley will see the impacts of climate change as icebergs are affected by the atmosphere, the ocean’s temperature, and sea ice. In the 1970s we had very low counts of icebergs, reaching zero in some years, and then suddenly there were 2,000 icebergs reaching that region.” ![]() “This year they counted around 380 reaching that region,” Marson said. However, things are starting to pick up again. In 2019, chasers saw about 1,500 icebergs in the region but in 2021, they only saw one. She said the article looks at concerns surrounding declining iceberg numbers. Now, Marson’s work is being recognized by National Geographic in an article about iceberg chasers in Newfoundland. “So it’s just a small percentage, but still they are very attractive, and, of course, they are important for our environment as well.” “This region receives about one per cent of all the icebergs, the break-off, of Greenland,” she explained. Marson said Iceberg Alley is well-known for several reasons, including the fact that the icebergs pose hazards for all the ships passing through. Juliana Marson, a physical oceanographer and an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba, has been studying what’s known as ‘Iceberg Alley’ - a stretch of water along the eastern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador where icebergs can be seen. One Manitoba scientist is being recognized in National Geographic for her work studying icebergs. ![]()
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