Documents found
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213.More information
A paleoecological study of the fossil fauna of the postglacial seas of Québec, with special attention on mollusks, permit the delineation of type-communities. These benthonic communities are distributed according to the depth, with small variations from the northern basins to the generally more brackish southern seas. Thus, epibiontic (epifaunal) communities living on coarse sediments are the intertidal Mytilus edulis community, and the deeper water Hiatella arctica community which may be subdivided in two sub-communities. The endobiontic (in-faunal) communities living in sandy, silty or clayey shallow water sediments, include the Mya arenaria and Macoma balthica communities and the deeper water Macoma calcarea community which may be subdivided in three sub-communities. The Portlandia arctica community deserves a special status because it is mainly associated with glacio-marine muddy environments. These communities, which correspond to well-defined litho facies, vary often succeeded each other in relation to the decreasing depth of the basins due to post-glacial rebound. Thus, they do not reflect climatic trends, but simply hydrological changes caused by shoaling of each basin. Occasionally, some «warm» water species migrated northward for a short period of time during middle or late Holocene. The reflect a slightly delayed climatic optimum in the Artic.
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214.More information
Following upon the Third Conference on the Law of the Sea begun in 1973, the principal maritime States of the world assumed exclusive national jurisdiction over a 12- mile zone extending from their coastlines and a 188-mile economic zone beyond territorial waters. Together they constitute the more familiarly referred to « 200-mile zone ». This new practice radically changed the political geography of the oceans, lessened the area within which the freedom of the seas exists, diminished by more than a third the surface area of the high seas and dealt a heavy blow to the fishing xpeditions of foreign trawlers. Canada is one of the principal users and one of the most vigourous defenders of the 200-mile principle for geographical reasons as much as for economic or political ones. The excessive exploitation of the seabed has been felt to be a threat for a portion of the population of the Eastern part of Canada. A firm policy criticized for being somewhat unilateral has enabled Canada to eliminate foreign fleets from its 200-mile zone. Over a period of 30 years the International Commission for North-West Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF) attempted to introduce a positive international cooperation in order to eliminate the anarchic excessive exploitation. It was replaced in 1979 by the North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organization. A major dispute exists between France and Canada with respect to the delimitation of the economic zone of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, French land since 1604. More generally, the question is posed as to how long the 200-mile principle will prevail in this new political geography of the oceans.
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215.More information
Europeans, almost immediately upon arrival, perceived America as an obstacle to be crossed. Their first grand illusion of the American North (Canada) was to underestimate the vastness of its continental dimension. For more than a century, Sébastien Cabot, Henry Hudson, Thomas James and others, seeking a passage to Asia, imagined the South Sea (Pacific Ocean) to be much closer to the North Sea (Atlantic) than it was in reality. For Champlain, in particular, this quest lay at the center of his mission to America. The idea of temporary settlement while awaiting a better place to go became a founding myth of Canada (Québec). From the very beginning, European explorers saw Canada as a mere place of transit to somewhere else.
Keywords: Explorations de l'Amérique du Nord, explorations du Nord canadien, Samuel Champlain, passage du Nord-Ouest, chemin de la Chine, Explorations of North America, Canadian North, Samuel Champlain, Northwest Passage, Passage to China
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