Long connected to fishing due to its proximity to Georges Bank, the town is located in the heart of the world's largest lobster fishing grounds and as a result receives Canada's largest lobster landings each year.
Through the 19th century the town was a major shipbuilding centre, at one point boasting more registered tonnage per capita than any other port in the world.Yarmouth is also connected to New England with its long history of ferry service to Boston, Portland and Bar Harbour, Maine.
The Gulf of Maine
The coastline of the Gulf of Maine is predominantly rocky and scenic. It is also very irregular and indented with many sheltered inlets, bays, channels, estuaries and tidal lakes. The effects of glaciation are responsible for this, as well as for stripping sedimentary soil away from the coastline, therefore the gulf lacks the sandy beaches found to the south along the Eastern Seaboard. The underwater features of the seabed sculptured during the lower sea levels of the ice ages make the gulf a semi-enclosed sea bounded to the south and east by underwater banks. Georges Bank in particular, on its southern end, protects the Gulf of Maine waters from the Gulf Stream. Gulf of Maine waters are more strongly influenced by the Labrador Current, making the gulf waters significantly colder and more nutrient-rich than those found to the south. Undersea valleys in the central basin can reach depths of 1,500 feet (500 m) while undersea mountains rise up 800 feet (266 m) from the sea floor, almost reaching the surface in some locations, or even exceeding it, creating islands.
/>
Georges Bank
Georges Bank is the most westward of the great Atlantic fishing banks, the now-submerged portions of the North American mainland which now comprise the continental shelf running from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to Georges. Georges Bank was part of the North American mainland as recently as 12,000 years ago.
Roughly oval in shape, Georges Bank measures about 149 miles (240 kilometres) in length by 75 miles (120 kilometres) in width, making it larger than Massachusetts. Located 62 miles (100 kilometres) offshore, Georges Bank is part of the continental shelf. It is submerged to a depth of several metres to several dozen metres; almost the entire bank is at least 330 feet (100 m) shallower than the Gulf of Maine to the north.
Gulf of Maine shelf waters are the Bank's primary source. They enter the northern flank, move clockwise around the eastern end, and then westward along the southern flank, mostly emptying into the Mid-Atlantic Bight (the continental shelf ocean between Cape Hatteras and Georges Bank).
Georges Bank, while not having the most productive fishery in the world, has great prominence in that it is probably the most geographically accessible of all the fishing banks in the North Atlantic. Lying adjacent to New England's famous seaports, Georges Bank is widely responsible for the development of coastal fisheries in towns such as Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
/>
To log this cache, please email me the answers to the questions below:
1. What are the two different ocean currents that affect the Gulf of Maine and Georges Banks . Indicate which has a greater influence on the waters in the area.
2. Roughly describe the shape and depth of Georges Banks.
3. Briefly describe how Yarmouth Harbour is typical of the geographic description of the coastal areas of the Gulf of Maine. This can be done by talking a walk along any stretch of Yarmouth's waterfront and to large degree just by looking at a map.
4. What evidence do you see along the harbour of the economic importance the Gulf of Maine and especially Georges Banks has had and continues to have on Yarmouth? (No need to over think this one and can also be done by talking a walk along any stretch of Yarmouth's waterfront.)
5. *OPTIONAL* Post a picture of you or your GPS device near the posted coordinates anywhere along Yarmouth Harbour.