Canada High Sea

Beyond Cape Breton, the eastern Scotian Shelf stretches out beneath the Atlantic in a succession of banks and deeper channels. Missaine and Canso Banks lie off the coast, while the Laurentian Channel separates these fishing grounds from the banks south of Newfoundland. European vessels regularly crossed to the offshore banks during the sixteenth century in search of fish and whales. Cold currents, fog and the open ocean made the voyage and the work at sea a demanding undertaking.