The Thousand Year Journey

Twillingate, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL)

Thousands of icebergs calve off of Greenland into the Baffin and Labrador seas every year, riding the Labrador current, some make it to the shores of Newfoundland; the culmination of a journey which would have spanned thousands of years. The average age of an iceberg is thought to be approximately 5000 years with many, much older. The town of Twillingate, Newfoundland and Labrador is a fishing community located in Notre Dane Bay along side "Iceberg Alley"; an area from Baffin Bay down along the east coast of Newfoundland and Labrador where icebergs occur frequently. Twillingate originally known as “Toulinquet”, was named by the the French after a group of islands off the coast of Brest, France. In the early 1700′s, Toulinquet soon became Twillingate to the English Settlers, many of whom were unable speak or read the French language.

Twillingate, NL

Twillingate is approximately 450 km (280 miles) from St. John's, the capital and business centre of Newfoundland and Labrador. The distance between the places would add approximately one month's travel to an iceberg's journey. A month that can make a big difference to the size of those majestic towers and slabs of ice that have been moulded by the sea into shapes of all description.  This summer while visiting family in Musgrave Harbour (NL), we travelled to Twillingate (a 2 hour drive) in the midst of iceberg season. To our delight; there were icebergs all along the horizon, attesting to the fact that 2014 was the best iceberg season in a decade. Approximately 40,000 medium to large sized icebergs calve (break off) annually in Greenland and approximately 2% (~800) may make it as far south as 48° north latitude (St.John's). The numbers will vary greatly from year to year but on this one day, there were over a hundred of these beautiful ice castles on the horizon, attesting to why Twillingate is referred to as the “Iceberg Capital Of The World”.

Ocean Quest Zodiak Tour

The Zodiak, a rigid-hulled inflatable boat is the best type of vessel (in my opinion), for the serious photographer to photograph icebergs, whales, birds and the coastline in general. Due to their high degree of manoeuvrability, size and speed they are able to circle icebergs with ease. One of the main advantages they offer is that you are closer to water level than other vessel types, as well as, providing an unobstructed view of your environment. Zodiak tours are limited to 8-12 people, depending on zodiak size.  All the following iceberg pictures were taken during a zodiak tour offered by Ocean Quest Tours out of Twillingate, Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Enjoy the photographs of nature's floating giants as they approach the end of their thousand(s) year journey. An update will be made to this post as soon as production of a video from this tour has been completed. Additional photographs can be seen on my flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/21108304@N02/.

What's in your backyard?

Contemplation.

Dinner with a view!

Dry-Dock Iceberg

Old House Cove Iceberg
Dirt in the iceberg, most likely from ancient volcanic activity.

Melting Berg!
It was over 30ºC (86°F), no surprise that the icebergs were melting.

There's large and than there's OMG Large!

This photograph shows the very large (OMG) iceberg in its entirety.  The red square is the area that is see in the above photograph with the tour vessel. The iceberg involved with the sinking of the titanic was a small iceberg, smaller than the one in the "Heading Home" picture and probably closer to the size of the one pictured in "What's in Your Backyard".  The winds were up and that is indeed melted water being blown up and over the iceberg. 

This photograph demonstrates the perspective distortion that can occur when taking a picture with a telephoto lens. The viewer cannot discern relative distances between objects – distances are compressed.  So, yes there really is a safe distance between the iceberg and the vessel as well as the vessel and the shore; though it does not seem to be.

Heading Home

Hunting Season has Arrived

Daily Iceberg Analysis Chart
for May 3 2014

Hunting season had arrived and by all indications it looks like it is going to be an exceptional year. Time to ensure the equipment is ready, you have the appropriate attire for all contingencies and weather (this is Newfoundland after all), have identified potential locations and routes to optimize coverage, thereby providing the greatest chance for a successful capture.  All is left is to pick the best time of day (morning or evening), bring lots of patience and head out hunting for the capture of the season...Icebergs. You thought I was going to say something else, like moose maybe! Oh and if you get lucky you'll have the ideal vantage point to yourself; yeah right, think again. The appearance of pack ice along Newfoundland's shores is nature's announcement that iceberg season has arrived, which for 2014 started in late April for the northeast Avalon.  

Iceberg Finder  Map May 3, 2014

For those of us who love to go iceberg hunting, icebergs are a welcome site. Our provincial government operates a Iceberg Finder website that aids in finding icebergs. All the icebergs won't be listed and they may have travel from their original sighting locale, but it's a tool to help narrow the search. The potential down sides of a good iceberg year are that we would be subjected to more northerly winds and potential unseasonal temperatures (definitely the case for 2014) as well our offshore oil and gas industry will have a challenging iceberg season. So far this season, two oil rigs were required to take evasive action. The Henry Goodrich and West Aquarius disconnected from their wells and ceased production due to approaching icebergs.  The lost production will results in multi-millions of loss revenue per day (both for the companies and provincial coffers). It could weeks or longer before they are able to resume production.

Based on the NA Ice Service Chart (Daily Iceberg Analysis Chart,  item #15), it indeed has the potential for being a good iceberg year. Enjoy the pictures of nature's floating giants (taken in 2014); and remember 90% of an iceberg is under water.  The attached video link is a compilation of iceberg video clips my husband and I took, set to the soundtrack of Songbird by Kenny G.  Iceberg Video May 2014 (soundtrack Songbird by Kenny G).

Update July 1, 2014:  Signal Hill Iceberg Collapse.

Iceberg Close Up from Tappers Cove (May 2014)

Iceberg in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland (May 2014)

Icebergs in Pouch Cove, Newfoundland (May 2014)

Iceberg Pouch Cove, Newfoundland (May 2014)

Large Iceberg Off Pouch Cove, Newfoundland (May 2014)

Iceberg in Harbour Main, Newfoundland (May 2014)

Iceberg in Tappers Cove (May 2014)

The Hat Trick

Now that the Olympics are over, its time to finalize another post. It has been said that when the French explorer Jacques Cartier arrived in the 16th century, he called Labrador “the land God gave Cain.” Ask any Newfoundlander and Labradorean and most will tell you God was more than a little generous with Cain, all things considered!  Of course, Cain also received black flies, mosquitoes and stouts as well (a whole other story). Twenty-two species of whales visit our coastal waters and there over 350 species of birds with over 35 million seabirds. Wildlife abounds and when you are only slightly smaller in land mass than the state of California and have a population of 510,000; your backyard is their home. We are an outdoor paradise for enthusiasts of all sorts. The Newfoundland and Labrador version of the "Hat Trick" (and no we are not talking about hockey, though we Canadians claim hockey as our national game) is icebergs, whales and birds (puffins and gannets are my personal favourites).  The possibility of sighting of birds and whales is a certainty from June through August, add in the majestic iceberg and the things get a little bit more dicey (some years anyway). 

Icebergs

Up Close and Personal (2012)

"Iceberg Alley”, is a stretch of Atlantic coastline that runs from the north eastern shores of Labrador down to the southern Grand Banks.  Icebergs tend to occur March through early July but the number of icebergs and location they may occur, varies greatly from year to year. The icebergs seen off the coast of Newfoundland originate from the ancient glaciers of Greenland. Without a doubt, southern Labrador and the the eastern coast of the Newfoundland from St. Anthony to Twillingate, offer the highest probability to site icebergs. However, most years will see a few near shore sightings in the Avalon region.  In fact, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador has a website to aid in the hunt for icebergs:  the Iceberg Finder. 

Witless Bay 2009

Icebergs on the Newfoundland coast travel about 17 Kilometres (10 miles) per day, drive by currents, tides and winds. By the time they have reached Newfoundland, they will have been travelled for approximately 2 years and 1800 nautical miles. What many people don't realize is that up to nine-tenths of an iceberg remains hidden below the ocean’s surface, hence the term "tip of the iceberg".

Icebergs have several different shapes known tabular, blocky, wedged, dome, pinnacle or dry dock (http://www.icebergfinder.com/iceberg-facts.aspx ).  The size of an iceberg can be deceptive, especially in photos or when viewed from land.  The Iceberg in the following photos is of the same iceberg.  The boat puts the size in context, remember ~10% of the iceberg is above water. Besides making for a great photo, icebergs are harvested for the production of water and vodka; as well as routinely towed as part of the oil shore oil and gas ice management strategy in Newfoundland.

Boat Passing by Iceberg in St. Anthony, NL (2012)

Iceberg in St. Anthony 2012
(Boat from previous photo was passing by the back left portion of the iceberg)

 Sunrise over Quidi Vidi (G.whiteway)

Iceberg in Melrose, NL (2009)
The iceberg is more than a kilometer away from land in this photo, so it's not really small.

Birds

Honey, I'm Home (2013)

Birds love it here, with Newfoundland boasting some of the largest seabird colonies in the world that are home to puffins, murres, gannets and kittiwakes. Not surprising given our 29,000 kilometres of coastline. So, whether it's by land or sea, birds are easy to find, even in the city! 

While the largest breeding colony of Atlantic Puffins (which is our provincial bird) in eastern North America is located on Great Island in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, my favourite puffin site is at Elliston ( http://www.townofelliston.ca/ ), a three and half hour drive from St. John's that has one of the closest land views of puffins.  If you are quiet, patient and get lucky, puffins may land within 3-4 feet of you (as was the case for the attached 2013 photos) and they will put on a show that will thrill all. Puffins (also known as sea parrots) are notoriously poor fliers, so watching them can be hilarious. They have difficulty becoming airborne and flap their wings at an amazing 300 to 400 beats per minute to maintain flight. Alas, their landings are no better than their take off and they often crash onto the sea or tumble onto the grass, bowling over other puffins that get in their way.

Elliston 2013

Puffin in Flight at Elliston, NL (2012).
The foggy day added a natural bokeh to the pictures.

Root Cellar in Elliston, NL

An added bonus in Elliston is the 133 documented root cellars, some of which have survived nearly two centuries. The root cellar played an important role in the life of the people of Elliston and surrounding areas for the preservation of vegetables and other food supplies, as well as a role children's games and folklore that was passed down through the generation. ( http://www.townofelliston.ca/2ar/rootcellars.html ).

Caper St. Mary's Ecological Reserve

Cape St. Mary's is a seabird sanctuary with the largest nesting colony of gannets in Newfoundland. During the breeding season, the Cape is home to over 24,000 Northern gannet, 20,000 black-legged kittiwake, 20,000 common murre, and 2,000 thick-billed murre, as well as some razorbills, black guillemot, double-crested and great cormorant, and Northern fulmar. While, it is only a few hours drive from the city of St. John's it is advisable to call ahead to check on the weather as fog is often encountered at the Cape (it's just down the shore from Argentia, one of the foggiest places in the world).
(http://www.greatcanadianparks.com/nfoundland/cstmary/index.htm  

Gannet Rookery on Bird Rock at Cape St. Mary's (2008)

Bird Rock is a sea stack standing just a few feet from the main body of the Cape St. Mary’s headland and rising 100 metres from the sea. Millions of years of erosion have worn away the softer limestone that once connected the rock pinnacle to the cliff, thus creating a natural refuge from the land-based predators of birds eggs and chicks.  Bird Rock is the second largest gannet rookery in North America.

Gannets at Cape St. Mary's (2008)

Whales

Humpack Whale Diving (and yes he/she just pooped!)
at Witless Bay Ecological  Reserve

With twenty species of whales in the surrounding waters; including minke, sperm, pothead, blue, orca, and humpbacks between May through September (primarily), watching whales is a common past time.  They feed on capelin, krill and squid along the coast and they are seen breaching the surface of the water and playing along our shores. Boat tours are readily available in most areas of the province for those of us unlucky enough not to have sea going vessels or families with them.  While I have seen humpbacks breaching, I have yet to captured this activity on camera.  In 2012, we took a boat tour out of St. Anthony and had the pleasure of watching two humpbacks check out the boat.  We could see them looking up at us from just below the water as they passed underneath and around the boat.  You get a real appreciation for their size when they are up that close.  Alas no breaching or tail waves that trip.

Humpback Whale at Witless Bay Ecological Reserve
 (http://www.townofwitlessbay.com/ecologicalreserve.htm)

Choose the right time of year to visit and you will have a reasonable chance of seeing all three: icebergs, whales and birds, Newfoundland's Hat Trick.  We'll even throw in a few moose, foxes and even the odd caribou!