Canada High Sea

South of Newfoundland, the Laurentian Channel cuts through the continental shelf towards the open Atlantic. The deep trench separates fishing banks on either side and carries ocean water into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Cod and other fish gather around its margins; sea pens, a kind of soft coral, live on the deeper floor. From the sixteenth century European ships came to the offshore banks in search of fish and whales, working far from the nearest sheltered coast.