Evidentia

In this third blog on Old Harry, I would like to mention the general state of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a self-enclosed sea. I would also like to suggest how we can act to prevent the current dead zone at the bottom of the Gulf from resembling the far larger dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. A dead zone is defined as “a condition of the ocean where all or most marine life is unable to survive because of extreme pollution.”

In the 1530s, the shoals of cod in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were so abundant that Jacques Cartier’s ships could not move

I should start off by saying the Gulf of St. Lawrence is not what it used to be. When sailing off Cape Breton Island, the 16th century explorer Jacques Cartier recorded shoals of cod so abundant that they stayed his ships. This was a resource that fishermen simply could not resist. Landings of North Atlantic cod around Newfoundland (both on the ocean side and on the Gulf side) rose from about 100,000 tonnes per year in the 1600s, to 2,000,000 tonnes per year in the 1960s. The fishery then collapsed, and the expansion of the seal population probably ensured cod would never recover.

In the mid-18th century, a single rookery in the Magdalen Islands had 100,000 Atlantic walruses

The earliest inhabitants of the Magdalen Islands hunted local populations of walruses (which they called sea cows), and in the mid-18th century there were reported to be 100,000 walruses in a single rookery. Industrial-scale hunting greatly diminished the size of the walrus population, which was coveted both for its ivory and walrus oil. There are no longer any walruses there.

John James Audubon, the French and American ornithologist, naturalist and painter, spent time in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during the early 19th century, where he painted the Great Auk, a large member of the penguin family, which was later hunted to extinction.

Aubudon painted the Giant Auk in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a huge member of the penguin family which has since gone extinct

The beluga whales are native to the Gulf and St. Lawrence River. Whaling greatly reduced their numbers during the 19th and early 20th centuries; they were actually dive-bombed with hand grenades during the 1940s and 1950s, at a time when it was believed they competed with local fishermen; and chemical pollution borne downstream by the St. Lawrence River has bought their numbers down from an estimated 5000 members at the beginning of the 20th century to 500-650 today. However, these belugas are prone to cancer, and in fact a recent scientific study reported that  “cancers reported in Saint Lawrence beluga represent about half of all cancers reported in cetaceans world-wide.”

On the more positive (or bizarre) side, Anticosti Island was stocked with white-tailed deer at the beginning of the 20th century. There are no predators on the island, so their numbers have grown to over 160,000 today. Some deer walk around the town of Port-Meunier begging for potato and apple peels, from door to door.

I took this photo of a young buck on Anticosti Island: it seemed about as tame as a domestic cat

It is worth mentioning different human activities which have an impact nowadays on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Despite the legacy of over-hunting and industrial, marine and other contamination, the Gulf of St. Lawrence is nonetheless full of life. In areas close to the Old Harry oil field, such as the Îles de la Madeleine or Magdalen Islands (80 km. away) and Bay St. George in SW Newfoundland (100 km. away), the lobster, snow crab and herring fisheries are vital parts of the local economy.  Fisheries nowadays are a highly regulated activity.

The Gulf of St. Lawrence is fed by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system, and therefore receives pollution from a huge area. The non-profit organization Ocean Action has identified the Gulf of St. Lawrence as an area subject to stress: “Most of the pollution is land-based, as domestic sewage, industrial discharge, urban and industrial run-off, and agricultural nutrients and pesticides are dumped into the sea by coastal communities and by the rivers emptying into the sea, often from extensive and distant watersheds. Oil spillage and waste dumped by ships add sea-based contaminants, as do offshore oil drilling and mining. Biological threats in the form of pathogens and invasive species add to the mess.”

Industrial pollution is taking its toll on the Gulf

Seismic activity and exploratory drilling, such as the campaign planned by Corridor Resources at the Old Harry field this summer, is disruptive for marine mammals and reptiles, given the noise, accidental spills of oil, vessel strikes, and impacts on commercial fisheries.

Climate change is also having an impact on the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Given all these threats to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the communities whose livelihood depends on it, every possible step should be taken to reduce land-based pollution, run-off and discharges of pesticides, discharges of industrial contaminants from mils upstream as well as passing ships. There is greater awareness of these threats now than at any time in the past. Bottom-water areas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence have already become dead zones, subject to “lethal hypoxia,” where oxygen is depleted while rotting organic matter (dead fish, dead seals) proliferates. This is one of the reasons why cod are unable to return to their former large numbers. They are being stifled in lifeless bottom-water areas which are actually expanding.

A dead zone at the bottom of the ocean

My  concern is that an accident at the Old Harry field, on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico, would have a disastrous effect not only on biodiversity and the unique ecosystem of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but also on the surviving fisheries, and on the Gulf’s ability to regenerate itself. I am happy to learn that Marilyn Clark, a student, is starting up a campaign to raise awareness about the issues raised by Old Harry.

Every step should be taken to reduce stresses on the Gulf, and this will require the combined efforts of the Canadian federal government, the provinces around the Gulf, as well as the United States government, given its stewardship over the southern part of the Great Lakes and part of the St. Lawrence River. We need a detailed environmental assessment of the impact of seismic campaigns, exploratory drilling, and, in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, of the potential impact of a decisive, uncontrollable oil spill. Above all, we need to put a stop to the Old Harry project, until all the facts about the Gulf of Mexico disaster are clearly established.

The tissue of St. Lawrence beluga whales shows dangerously high levels of DDT and PCBs in their tissue