History
While there is no archaeological evidence for a European presence near the Grand Banks between the short-lived Greenland Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in CE 1000 and John Cabot's transatlantic crossing in 1497, there is some evidence that voyagers from Portugal and England (especially those from Bristol) and others preceded Cabot. In the 15th century some texts refer to a land called Bacalao, the land of the codfish, which is possibly Newfoundland. Within a few years of Cabot's voyage the existence of fishing grounds on the Grand Banks became generally known in Europe. Ships from France and Portugal were first to fish there, followed by those from Spain while ships from England were scarce in the early years. These fish stocks were also important for the early economies of eastern Canada and New England.
On 18 November 1929, a major earthquake (known as the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake) on the southwestern part of the Grand Banks bordering the Laurentian Channel caused an underwater landslide which resulted in extensive damage to transatlantic cables and generated a rare Atlantic tsunami that struck the south coast of Newfoundland and eastern Cape Breton Island claiming 28 lives in the Burin Peninsula.
Technological advances in fishing such as large factory ships and sonar, as well as geopolitical disputes over territorial sea and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundaries, have led to overfishing and a serious decline in the fish stocks of the Grand Banks from around 1990.
Canada's EEZ currently occupies the majority of the Grand Banks except for the lucrative "nose" (eastern extremity, near the Flemish Cap) and "tail" (southern extremity) of the fishing bank. The Treaty of Paris (1783) gave the United States shared rights to fish in these waters, but that section of the Treaty is no longer in force. The French territory Saint Pierre and Miquelon Exclusive Economic Zone occupies a pin-shaped section at the west edge of the Grand Banks, with the 22km radius head of the pin surrounding the islands and the needle heading south for 348km.
Read more about this topic: Grand Banks Of Newfoundland
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