Strait of Belle Isle; Battle Harbour, Labrador

15 July continued:

Whales and icebergs

The Strait of Belle Isle is considered a wildlife superhighway, linking the relatively warm waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence with cold Atlantic waters (the Labrador current) coming from the Arctic Ocean. Fish and marine mammals  travel north and south along this narrow corridor in search of food and have attracted people to the area for thousands of years.

Iceberg in the Strait of Belle Isle. Icebergs break off glaciers
in Greenland and travel south with the Labrador current at
an average speed of 0.7 km/h (but up to 3.6 km/h)

Sooty shearwater. Shearwaters have narrow wings, have to run
over the water to get up speed for take-off. 

Whale and distant iceberg.
Most whale sightings were of the "tha she blows" variety.

Minke whale - the only one I learned to identify. 
It doesn't blow much.

Battle Harbour

Located on a rocky island, Battle Harbour is Newfoundland and Labrador’s only intact salt fishing village, maintained by a local historical trust. The mercantile salt-fish premises at Battle Harbour were originally established by John Slade & Co of Poole, England in the early 1770s. Salt fish is cod that has been cleaned, split, salted and dried. 
After 1820, the population increased when Battle Harbour was declared capital of the floater fishery. "Floater fishery" consisted of Newfoundland fishermen who fished in Labrador waters in the summer, and returned to Newfoundland in the fall. 
In 1892, Dr Wilfred Grenfell arrived. In 1893 he built Labrador’s first hospital here. 

The 1904 Marconi wireless telegraph station is marked by a plaque on the high point of the island.
Robert Peary held his press conference here in 1909, claiming the first successful expedition to the North Pole. 
In the late 1960s residents were encouraged to move to the mainland, mostly to Mary’s Harbour. In 1990 the Battle Harbour Historic Trust was founded: it maintains buildings and operates boats, inn, site tours, and lunches.

These are "flakes" where the split cod was dried. When it looked
like rain the women rushed out to stack and cover up the cod.

Hudson Bay Company net store. HBC rented nets to fishermen.

The evening ferry from Mary's Harbour has just arrived
(plus some of our group in the red wetskins are about
to embark on Zodiac dinghy).

Although it was sunny in Battle Harbour, it was cold - the first cool day on this trip.

This is Kyle's more dramatic view of Battle Harbour.

A highlight of the tour of the village was entering the Anglican Church to find Jim Payne playing the organ. Jim is the One Ocean "artist-in-residence" on the ship, singer, multi-instrumentalist, hiker, gardener and Zodiac driver. His website is http://www.singsonginc.ca/  For the past few years he has spent the week between Christmas and New Year's touring oil installations on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.