By Jan Matthews
Saltscapes,
May/June 2007

When a sliver of glacier calves off the coast of Greenland and plummets into the sea, it becomes an iceberg that can travel as far south as the Gulf Stream before meeting its demise. Along the way it will sail past the coast of Labrador and then Newfoundland, close enough to be spotted from shore. Some years there have been more than a thousand icebergs visible from the coast, other years there have been only a few. The past two years, however, have been unprecedented: the iceberg count has been so low that the International Ice Patrol has not opened the ice season.

In 2005 there were 11 and in 2006 there were none in the region patrolled by the IIP, a division of the US Coast Guard. Since only 11 bergs drifted south of 48°N (near St. Anthony) in 2005, and those bergs didn’t effect shipping lanes, the season did not open. In 2006, not one berg was spotted. With no bergs, there’s no danger, and hence no ice season.

Icebergs aren’t critical to life in Newfoundlanders, and there has been little direct impact. In fact, for some the lack of bergs has been a good thing. Bergs are, however, considered a tourist asset: since the release of Titanic, they have been bringing visitors into the province. Without icebergs, tourism may suffer, and some tour operators are starting to worry. The larger impact, though, may be in how people think: the berg decline has raised awareness about an environment that is without question changing rapidly and that people must adapt to if communities are to survive.

First, a bit of background. An iceberg—10,000 to 15,000 are calved from glaciers in Greenland each year—can take two to four years to travel far enough south to be seen in St. John’s, generally in May, June and July. How many are still intact by that time depends on what happens during the 1,800-mile journey. They can get caught in narrow fjords or slowed by grinding along the bottom of the sea. Icebergs disintegrate by melting—warmer water does this—and through erosion caused by waves. These forces will lead to calving of the iceberg, accompanied by lots of cracking and roaring, and when more surface area is exposed to water, melting and erosion continue the disintegration process.

What has been happening to the icebergs over the past few years can be tracked beginning at the top of Newfoundland: St. Anthony. Barry Budgell, economic development officer with the town, says there have been plenty of bergs off the Labrador coast, because someone goes out and looks. Since there haven’t been any in St. Anthony, people have come to the conclusion that wind and current have pushed them away. Far enough, in fact, that tourists have to be in boats to see them. At least, there’s a chance of seeing them, which is good given that icebergs are a major tourist attraction.

People living in Change Islands, which is halfway down the coast, haven’t seen any in the past several years. By the time the icebergs reached the Bonavista area (roughly three-quarters of the way down the coast), they were too far away for tourists to see even from boats. Residents only knew the bergs were there because fishermen spotted them when they reached the 200-mile limit.

As people living along the coast have observed, bergs that reach the Labrador coast have been pushed away by prevailing winds. “Over the past two seasons, from mid-February to mid-March, storms have pumped in easterly winds along the mid and south Labrador coast,” says Canadian Ice Service ice forecaster Luc Desjardins, who sometimes speaks like the meteorologist he once was. As well, bergs have been shoved toward the continental shelf into shallower water, where they get grounded.

Along with prevailing winds, the rate of disintegration may be changing. Although thousands of bergs are calving off, Desjardins says that eye witnesses are reporting that they appear to be smaller than usual. “If the ocean is warming, that will play a negative role, since it will help them melt faster. It takes a very precise set of circumstances to bring the bergs down the coast.”

Not everyone who makes a living from icebergs has been feeling the pinch. Iceberg Vodka, for instance, is based on water from bergy bits that someone has to find and pluck out of the sea. But David Hood, vice-president of Iceberg Vodka, says his company hasn’t been effected because they traditionally have harvested ice further north, where there still are plenty of bergs. Tour boat operators south of St. Anthony have had no bergs to show tourists, but there have been plenty of whales. And photographers can still find icebergs if they go far enough out. Cruise ships may be able to take advantage of the change, if it continues, since they have the capacity to travel much further out than small boat operators.

Two years of no bergs is one thing. If 2007 is another season of the same, “it would be a big concern for all of us,” says Stan Cook, past-president of Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador, and current chair of HNL’s sustainable tourism committee. “It will be an indicator of a lot of problems, and it will effect business.” Operators in Gander say tourism has suffered there because of the berg bust. If tourists are determined to see icebergs, several wits have suggested that tour operators may have to resort to building a convincing replica.

Although tourists might miss the icebergs, that’s not the case with some residents. “Icebergs are nice to look at, but they’re a nuisance,” says St. Anthony’s Budgell. “They’re dangerous. They break up unannounced with a huge explosion and then they flounder.” One year there were so many bergs in the harbour that they blocked it from traffic for several days. The sentiment in other places is not dissimilar. Bonavista town clerk Dave Hiscock says that while tourists want to see a lot of bergs, the fishermen don’t want to see any in their fishing grounds, they’re such a hazard. Tieneke Gow, who runs the Artisan Inn and Campbell House B&B in Trinity, doesn’t miss bergs, although some tourists might. “Icebergs are a nuisance,” she says. Fog and cold weather accompany them, and Gow is enjoying the better weather. She says last spring and summer were outstanding: “Twenty five degrees! Really pleasant.” Gardens were still in full bloom the first of November.

Talk of warmer weather seems to accompany any discussion of the berg decline. In Change Islands, people can’t skate on the tickle (the stretch of water between the north and south islands) in the winter any longer, they can’t build ice roads, and there’s very little snowmobiling. But with less ice blockage, there have been fewer delays in winter ferry service and warmer winters are reducing home heating costs.

The absence of icebergs, along with these other changes, are leading some to wonder about climate change. “We hear about global warming,” says Betty Fitzgerald, mayor of Bonavista. “Is this why we’re not getting icebergs? Why is this happening?” Change Islanders link the berg decline to climate change, and when people in Newfoundland were asked last fall by Climate Action Network Canada how they were experiencing climate change, they said—among many other things—that there were fewer icebergs.

Those who study climate change say the berg decline is consistent with climate change, but it’s impossible to say with certainty that it is part of climate change. There is, however, no doubt that the climate in Atlantic Canada is warming up. Environment Canada has detected a warming trend for the Maritimes over the past 100 years of 0.5 to 0.6 degrees, “but how the climate has behaved over 30 years is different from region to region,” says Gary Lines, manager of climate change for the Atlantic region. “There are complex changes that we’re trying to get our heads around.” Isn’t everyone.

Although the absence of icebergs may not be directly attributable to climate change, it may very well have increased awareness of how climate change impacts specific regions. As Lines says, we have to pay attention. We have never been through this before. All four Atlantic provinces have recognized that climate change is happening and are looking at what to do about it, says Lines. For Newfoundland, that has meant marine and coastal communities working on coastal policies.

Coastal erosion is a pressing problem in some parts of the province. “Since we’ve started watching—over the past 15 years—storm activity has increased,” says Norm Catto, geography professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. There have been more storm surges, erosion, and loss of sediment. Beaches have become narrower and coarser, and infrastructure is vulnerable. Roads have been badly damaged, wharves have been lost and fishing vessels have been damaged or lost.

In January of 2000, a storm destroyed four homes in Port aux Basques: the water at its peak, urged on by winds of 150 km an hour, was 18 meters higher than sea level. The main ferry terminal for the province is there. What would happen if the terminal was destroyed in another storm? Catto wrote the scenario for the practice drill the town ran in June of 2006. It was sponsored by Health Canada, which is concerned about emergency preparedness. The report is still being written, but Catto says that as a result of the drill, people realized that if the municipal authorities can work very closely with police, the fire department, and the hospital, they can increase their chances of getting through the next storm intact.

It’s not just federal agencies that are responding. Municipalities are consulting with Catto about coastline erosion, in order to better implement control measures such as sea walls and barriers. Rising sea level is threatening coastal towns such as Bonavista. Sea fencing of heavy timber is going up to protect homes and roads, says Mayor Fitzgerald, but it’s expensive, and a portion wasn’t finished last year when the sea came in and iced families into their homes. “We were a couple of days getting people out.”

While, as Catto says, Newfoundland contributes a minuscule amount of greenhouse gas emissions, people are encouraged to do their bit. And they are. They’re using their vehicles less often, in part by organizing carpools themselves. Memorial University encourages carpooling. The city of St. John’s is running an anti-idling program, and taxi drivers in St. John’s are encouraged to turn their engines off rather than idling. The Conservation Corps has been talking to an outfit in Tennessee for three years about conducting a technology feasibility study in the province. The technology, called Idle-Air, allows truck drivers to turn off their engines during stops. The old ferries, which burn 50 million liters of diesel fuel every year, are being replaced by new, fuel-efficient ferries, says Terry McNeil, executive director of Conservation Corps of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Just as changes in environment are specific to each region, so too are the challenges each region faces. In Newfoundland, unemployment is high and people struggle to make ends meet. Many Newfoundlanders are in a Catch-22, says McNeil. Young families know if they upgraded their homes to be more energy efficient, they would save $900 a year. But to pay for the upgrade, they would need a loan, and they don’t have the money to cover loan payments. “They’re living cheque to cheque and they need to balance their bills.”

Some communities are far more concerned about their survival than about responding to any foreseeable changes in their environment. That’s the case in Change Islands, which researchers have studied as part of a project comparing capacity to adapt to uncertain futures. The population, which was 524 in 1991, dropped to 360 in 2001. When the fishery collapsed, many people left to find work. They’re still leaving, recently to Alberta. The focus for those who remain is on rebuilding, and that, for the most part, means tourism. Resident Herb Bown, who lives most of the year in St. John’s running an eLearning company, says tourism has increased significantly in Change Islands. One of the founders of the heritage building foundation, he says that people are repairing and restoring heritage buildings (even outhouses), the Newfoundland Pony Sanctuary is a big draw, there’s a new museum, an inn, restaurant and cafe, and locals are making and selling crafts. “People are feeling a little better than they did three or four years ago,” says Bown.

Participants in the study recognize that the climate has changed, particularly in the past 10 years. But since they believe there is little they can do about it, their only option is to adapt, says Maureen Woodrow, a Carleton University sociologist involved in the study. (She also has a house in Change Islands.) Residents believe that tourism and agriculture can benefit from climate change, an idea that others have voiced as well. Bonavista has extended its tourist season because of the warmer weather, and Tieneke Gow in Trinity is convinced that more people are visiting Newfoundland communities because the weather has been good there, and so very hot elsewhere in the country and the world.

Although the warm weather is not likely to disappear anytime soon, icebergs may return in 2007. Stephen Bruneau, who has written a book on icebergs, says he was in Greenland in 2005 and saw thousands of new bergs. “Perhaps many of these will show up this year.” And if they don’t, Newfoundlanders will adapt, to the icebergs and to climate change in general. “We’ll get there,” Lines says. “My conclusion is that the first hurtle has been climbed and we’re at a point where we’re doing something about this. No matter at what speed climate change is happening, we’re hoping this makes us better prepared.”

Originally published in Saltscapes magazine. The story is presented here in its entirety, before being edited by the good folks at Saltscapes. Copyright Jan Matthews 2011