North West Atlantic Region

The North West Atlantic region extends from the continental shelf and slope areas off Atlantic Canada and New England. The majority of the continental shelf of this region falls within the jurisdiction of Canada and the United States but the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks and Flemish Cap extend into international waters. The area surrounding St. Pierre and Miquelon is under French authority. Beyond the shelf are vast slope, abyssal plain and seamount ecosystems extending to the mid-Atlantic ridge.

The wide, relatively shallow continental shelf of the region was shaped into shallow offshore banks, deep basins and channels, and spectacular submarine canyons by the advance and retreat of glaciers and sea level changes associated with past ice ages. Some of the most famous fishing grounds - including Georges Bank and the Grand Banks - extend hundreds of kilometres from the land.

The cold Labrador Current - which trasports majestic icebergs to the Grand Banks each spring - dictates water temperatures throughout much of the NWAE. The convergence of this current with the warmer Gulf Stream provides for enhanced phytoplankton growth in the ecoregion.

The region is made up of a wide variety of ecosystems, from productive coastal estuaries to unexplored submarine canyons. A rich diversity of plants and animals comprise these and other ecosystems. The Northwest Atlantic is best known for its large populations of commercial groundfish, such as Atlantic cod of haddock, but hundreds of other fishes occur there. Invertebrates, such as lobster, shrimp and roughly 30 species of cold-water corals are also found in the region. The Northwest Atlantic is also an important stopover site for many highly migratory species, including the blue whale, numerous seabirds, large pelagic fishes such as tunas and the leatherback turtle.

Aboriginal peoples have inhabited what is now Atlantic Canada and New England since the retreat of the last ice age approximately 11,000 years ago. These hunter-gatherers harvested marine fishes and shellfishes in coastal areas as part of their seasonal subsistence activities.

Commercial fishing activity in the Northwest Atlantic began in the late 14th century when Western European fleets started making annual trans-Atlantic voyages to harvest Atlantic cod. This eventually led to the development of domestic fleets and a regional economy and culture that revolved around the fishery. The introduction of bottom trawling technology after World War II increased pressure on groundfish resources and, by the mid 1990s, most cod and other groundfish stocks had collapsed. Today, several remnant groundfish fisheries remain but Canadian effort has largely shifted to invertebrates such as lobster, crab and shrimp. The economy of many coastal areas remains closely linked to the sea but changes in the fishery have led to outmigration from some traditional fishing communities.

Other present day human uses include shipping (the region lies on the great circle route between Europe and the Northwest United States and is the only access point to the St. Lawrence Seaway); exploration and exploitation of oil and gas; and increasingly aquaculture and tourism. Key threats include the ecosystem impacts of overfishing, bottom-impacting gear and bycatch; illegal dumping of bilge oil, and climate change-induced changes to currents and water temperatures.