[Closed] Gulf of St-Lawrence

Hi Bright Opal!

I'm really curious about this one, but I think I'm too close to it at the moment to see anything clearly. Not by proximity, but because a loved one spends two weeks in Nova Scotia every year and is headed that way now. He spends most of his time on the water while there. 

I'm from the US Gulf Coast and as you may have heard, all of Mississippi's beaches had to be shut down for the summer due to dangerous red tide and toxic cyano algae blooms. The latter is exacerbated by months of flooding along the Mississippi in combination with hazardous agricultural run-off. There are new reports of widespread toxic blooms affecting countries further south, too. 

The Deepwater Horizon spill is still wreaking havoc in the Gulf, and climate change is only amplifying issues there. So, all of what you've listed here sound like reasonable concerns. (Hmm, I wonder if some kind of potential ship wreck in the channel might generate a spill threat?) 

I'll keep my eye on this and post back if anything shows up. 

Sending love and light there in the meantime. 

Okay, a weird thing just happened.

I found myself studying maps of eastern Canada and the US. I was looking all over, at all sorts of things for quite a while; I love geography. At some point I clicked on Anticosti Island, which I didn't realize in that moment sits right in the center of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I went to search Google images of the island just to see what the terrain looks like (it's phenomenal) and one of the top images, weirdly, was the thumbnail for a 2015 Vice YouTube video entitled, "The Hunt for Fossil Fuel on Anticosti Island."

Part of the description reads:

"Anticosti is nestled in the heart of the St-Lawrence gulf but it’s on the front lines of a major environmental controversy. Despite Quebec’s commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions at the Paris Climate Change Conference, the province seems rather tempted by the estimated 246 billion cubic feet and 12.3 million barrels of oil that could be extracted each year from Anticosti."

I did some more digging and it looks like the Canadian government officially shut down further drilling on the island back in 2017. But I'm finding very little in the way of news reporting on the subject after that date. It's apparently very sparsely populated, but the island is in real economic trouble, so drilling was an easy sell initially.

This is pure speculation, but I have to wonder whether private drilling might have continued even after the gov't officially shut it down. If so, export shipping would be illegal and dangerous, not least because the island is surrounded by rock and is considered a historic graveyard for shipwrecks. The only flash I got was on a potential wreck. 

Curious what you think about this, @bright-opal.

This is interesting.  I was speaking to my mother tonight, about what could be happening in the Gulf.  Yes, Anticosti Island has been in the news in the past for oil drilling and the projects have always been shut down at one point or another.  We have very active and strong environmentalists in the province lobbying really hard to protect the St-Lawrence estuary. 

There is a lot of oil in the gulf, and drilling would provide much needed employment for the people living in the lower St Lawrence area (Anticosti Island, Madeleine's Islands, Gaspe, etc).  But Quebec's Prime Minister is siding with the environmentalist and is pushing for exploitation of renewable resources including wind mills in that same area.  So I hope the drilling for oil projects are not in the cards for the moment.  However, illegal drilling could be a possibility, although I've ever heard of it.

As I mentioned, I don't read the paper anymore so I asked my parents if they knew about anything that might be happening in the gulf.  My mother mentioned a new fish species was discoverd in the St-Lawrence but I can't find anything on this. 

I'll try to see if there is something about Aldea in the St Lawrence at one point this week to see if there is something on that.  We've had problems with blue-green algea in our lakes and rivers. 

I look forward to learning what you find out. I did come across stories of right whales being killed by vessels moving through the gulf, possibly because of high speeds.

I've been fascinated to see how strong the environmental movement's support is in the region overall. (Please send some of that further south!) I get photos from Nova Scotia every year and I'm always moved by how beautiful the landscape is. I can see why there are so many working hard to protect it. 

I apologize for taking so long with the updates.  I have moved so it takes me a long time to get setup, very long.

So, this morning I did a search in french looking up information or news about the Gulf and the estuary.  Since it is mostly is the province of Quebec, a predominantly French speaking population. 

In the 1960s,  the striped bass had disappeared from the St.Lawrence Gulf and Estuary.  There was an effort to re-introduce it back in 2012.  In 2018, it look like the initiative had failed, but they reappeared this year.  Some fishing people have caught the fish.  There are conditions in place in order to avoid over fishing.  There is a maximum number allowed per person per day, the size of the fish and where the fish is caught.  This week there was a request from the Ministry of Forest and Fishery to report what has been caught (size), where, when, how (bait).  They are asking for information from as far back as 10 years.  It seems the bass' population is now extending to the St.Lawrence Estuary and has been seen in the Saguenay river.

The beluga (endangered species) have been in he news.  Several females have died while gestating (is that a word?  In the province of Quebec, there is an initiative for "adopting belugas" where donate for a specific beluga.  This helps in research and tracking specific belugas through out the St. Lawrence.  Quebec city has adopted 2 last year or the year before.  Recently The federal government invested an additional $3 millions for research and protection.

There has been more tropical fishes found in the Golf of St.Lawrence this year, including the great white shark. 

I wonder what will be the impact of the major ice melt in early August on the St.Lawrence ecosystem.  I guess we'll find out soon...