ICE CONDITIONS, 1975 SEASON 



September-December 1974 



After the close of the 1974 Season, the second 

 heaviest on record, a few icebergs reached the 

 waters immediately north of the Grand Banks. 

 The southernmost of these was reported on 11 

 September as a large berg in position 47°59'N, 

 45°48'W. On 8 October, a merchant ship sighted 

 an iceberg "140 miles after leaving Cape Race". 

 Ice Patrol was unable, to contact the reporting 

 ship to confirm this report and no other reports 

 of this iceberg were received. Otherwise, there 

 was no ice reported south of 51 °N from Septem- 

 ber through December. By the first of September 

 all sea ice had melted in Baffin Bay. New ice did 

 not start forming again until late September 

 along the east coast of Ellesmere Island and in 

 isolated bays and coves along the Baffin Island 

 coast. Freeze-up began in earnest in Baffin Bay 

 in mid-October, with a very rapid ice growth 

 during late October through the first half of 

 November. Slightly above average growth rates 

 continued for the remainder of the year. On 

 20 November, a U.S. Navy ice reconnaissance 

 flight with an Ice Patrol observer on board cov- 

 ered the waters along the coast of Labrador and 

 southern Baffin Island. Only three icebergs were 

 sighted, all north of Cape Chidley. The follow- 

 ing day, an aerial survey was completed in central 

 Baffin Bay south of 76°N. When compared to a 

 similar survey in October, 1970, there were rela- 

 tively few bergs observed south of 73 °N. On 

 22 November, the east coast of Greenland was 

 surveyed between 65°30'N and 76°N. A surpris- 

 ing number of large icebergs were sighted. Under 

 ideal conditions, some of these bergs would sur- 

 vive a drift from East Greenland across the 

 Labrador Sea or Davis Strait and then south to 

 the Grand Banks. By the end of December, sea 

 ice cover extended from the coast of Greenland 

 near Sondrestrom Fjord in a southeasterly direc- 

 tion to about 100 nautical miles east of Hudson 

 Strait, then southerly along the Labrador coast 



to 52°30'N (just north of the Strait of Belle 

 Isle). Very open pack new ice developed over 

 the eastern half of the Strait and new ice was 

 beginning to form in some sheltered shallows of 

 Notre Dame Bay and Newfoundland's Northern 

 Peninsula. 



January 1975 



Only one iceberg (53°05'N, 52°05'W) was re- 

 ported by maritime traffic in January. Although 

 retarded somewhat during the first week of 

 January, the overall trend was for normal ice 

 growth east and northeast of Newfoundland. By 

 the middle of the month, the Strait of Belle Isle 

 was covered and ice was spreading into New- 

 foundland waters. Notre Dame Bay remained 

 ice free until near the end of the month when 

 new and grey ice were first observed. By the 

 end of January, new ice had formed in Bonavista 

 Bay and the heavier Labrador pack was moving 

 south of 51°N. A preseason survey was con- 

 ducted January 20-28 along the coasts of Labra- 

 dor and Baffin Island as far north as Cape 

 Christian and across Davis Strait to the west 

 Greenland coast (See Figure 1). Iceberg popu- 

 lations south of Davis Strait were estimated to 

 be about one half the 1963-1974 average. There 

 were no icebergs sighted during the flights south 

 of Hamilton Inlet and only four icebergs between 

 54° N and 55 °N. The southernmost of these were 

 two small bergs located at 54°23'N 54°18'W and 

 54°25'N, 54°37'W. The latitudinal iceberg dis- 

 tribution is illustrated graphically in figure 2. 

 No large icebergs were sighted south of Cape 

 Chidley and the bergs located north of there 

 were small and very weathered. Considering the 

 lack of sizable icebergs, the small total popula- 

 tion and the northern position of the main iceberg 

 grouping, it was predicted that the 1975 iceberg 

 season would see a below normal number of ice- 

 bergs reaching the Grand Banks and the season 

 would besrin later than usual. 



