The icy cold waters that stretch from the Davis Strait, which is between Greenland and the Canadian territory of Nanavut, down to the Grand Banks off the coasts of the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, is known as the Atlantic Marine Ecozone. The waters were once home to abundant amounts of lobster, crab, shrimp, and cod, but overfishing has depleted the sea life. As a result, the area has not been a popular draw for fisherman over the last thirty years.
The Atlantic Marine Ecozone is also known for its many icebergs.
The icebergs rang in size from just a few feet long to several hundred feet long. At any given time, there can be hundreds floating in the water, which is how the Atlantic Marine Ecozone earned its nickname “Iceberg Alley.” The icebergs form by breaking off from the glaciers of Greenland; they then slowly drift south for a few months to a few years. Often quite large in size, they are usually littered with rock and other grit from Greenland.
These icebergs made traversing the area hazardous for steamship liners in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Only the most experienced captains and the best ships were sent through the treacherous Iceberg Alley.
Captains like Edwin Smith and ships like the Titanic.
When the Titanic maneuvered through Iceberg Alley in 1912, it became part of history for the tragedy that happened after it hit a four-hundred-foot-long iceberg on April 14. After it sunk to the bottom of the Atlantic, taking with it the lives of more than fifteen hundred passengers, it was believed that the Titanic’s remains would be a zone of death on the ocean floor. But, in a testament to the cycle of life, the ship has created a new mini-ecosystem within the Atlantic Marine Ecozone.
Aquatic algae and other deepwater organisms now call the remains of the Titanic their home. In fact, scientists believe that the process will become so thorough, one day soon very few visible remnants of the ship will exist.