Nunavik’s Ungava Bay sees bumper crop of icebergs

During low tide, icebergs become grounded along the shoreline and quickly break up, like this one pictured at Quaqtaq’s marine infrastructure last week. (PHOTO BY JOHNNY OOVAUT)

A giant iceberg overlooks the community of Quaqtaq, along Nunavik’s Ungava coast last week. (PHOTO BY CHARLIE TUKKIAPIK)

People in Quaqtaq say they’re seeing an unusually high number of icebergs floating along Hudson Strait and into Ungava Bay this year.

The Nunavik community is documenting them, too. On a Facebook page called the Iceberg Club of Quaqtaq, you can see dozens of the prehistoric icy-blue beasts.

One photo shows an iceberg shaped like a man’s profile; another shows happy elders with blocks of ice that they’ll melt for tea.

“We see icebergs all the time, since I was a boy,” said resident Johnny Oovaut. “But not in this large number, and all at the same time. Elders are even saying they’ve never seen it like this.”

Starting mid-September, a number of icebergs moved towards Quaqtaq’s Diane Bay, where Ungava Bay meets the Hudson Strait.

At certain points during the month, you could see from 20 to 30 of the giant ice sculptures floating out on the bay in front of the community, Oovaut said.

But as the tide ebbs and flows, a number of the icebergs have become grounded along Quaqtaq’s shoreline, quickly breaking up into thousands of pieces of ice.

“A big giant iceberg can disappear overnight,” Oovaut said. “We had to clear the beach with a loader at one point so the sealift could get in.”

The arrival of so many icebergs is, on the surface, a welcome sight for the community.

“We love icebergs,” Oovaut said. “We use them for making juice and tea. It’s a very good thirst quencher because the water from icebergs has no taste — it’s completely pure.”

But at the same time, Quaqtarmiut wonder what the icebergs’ arrival might mean.

“It’s an indication that something is happening,” Oovaut said.

The number and location of icebergs depends on a few different factors, said Jason Ross of the Canadian Ice Service: from the calving rate in Greenland where icebergs start their journey, to the velocity of ocean currents and the duration of winds.

The icebergs likely took one to two years to travel from Greenland, Ross said, where break off from larger glaciers.

Although the government agency does not chart or keep statistics on icebergs in Ungava Bay, Ross said the extent of sea ice cover in parts of the Canadian Arctic could be the reason Ungava Bay is seeing so many icebergs this year.

That should also explain why Newfoundland and Labrador saw a high number of icebergs along their northern coast earlier this year.

Last year’s colder than normal winter left more sea ice in the Canadian Arctic, Ross said, which in turn keeps waves and temperatures down, essentially preserving icebergs.

Nunavik’s remaining icebergs will continue to follow ocean currents, if they aren’t first grounded by Ungava Bay’s high tides.

An aerial view of icebergs in Nunavik’s Diane Bay.(PHOTO BY JOHNNY OOVAUT)