The Fish Fauna of Gilbert Bay, Labrador: a Marine Protected Area in the Canadian Subarctic Coastal Zone

• Published in: Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom
• Main Authors: Wroblewski, Joseph S., Kryger-Hann, Leanne K., Methven, David Alan, Haedrich, Richard L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press 2007
• Subjects: Arctic; Newfoundland; Canada; Gilbert Bay; Subarctic
• Online Access: https://research.library.mun.ca/2016/; https://research.library.mun.ca/2016/1/The_fish_fauna_of_Gilbert_Bay_Labrador_a_marine_protected_area_in_the_Canadian_subarctic_coastal_zone.pdf; https://research.library.mun.ca/2016/3/The_fish_fauna_of_Gilbert_Bay_Labrador_a_marine_protected_area_in_the_Canadian_subarctic_coastal_zone.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1017/S0025315407054136

The Marine Protected Area in Gilbert Bay, Labrador is the first established in the subarctic coastal zone of eastern Canada. A standardized survey of the fish fauna of Gilbert Bay was initiated during the ice-free season of 2004 to provide baseline information on the fish present in water less than 15 m deep. Beach seines and gill-nets sampled three management zones within the bay which are afforded different levels of protection from human activity. The 25 species in 15 families recorded belong to five ecological guilds: (1) estuarine and marine fish resident in the bay; (2) anadromous species transiting the bay; (3) marine species which migrate into the bay to spawn; (4) offshore-spawning marine fish for which the bay is a nursery area; and (5) marine species which occasionally migrate into the bay to feed. Gilbert Bay lies in a transition zone between Arctic and coldtemperate biogeographical provinces, and its fish fauna is dissimilar from a cold-temperate fish assemblage described for Trinity Bay in eastern Newfoundland.