The Gros-Mécatina Migratory Bird Sanctuary (french: Refuge d'oiseaux de Gros Mécatina) is a protected area in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. It consists of four islands and a reef in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence that are used as nesting sites by seabirds.

Location

The Gros Mécatina Bird Sanctuary is in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence offshore from the Cap du Gros Mecatina, the communities of Mutton Bay and La Tabatière, and the Baie des Ha! Ha!. The protected area includes four islands and a reef – the Île Plate, Île aux Trois Collines, the two Îles aux Marmettes and the Rochers aux Marmettes. The coastal waters within of the islands and reef are also protected, covering an area of in total. Part of the terrain is bare rock, and part is covered in flora such as cranberry (''Vaccinium oxycoccos''),

cloudberry ''Rubus chamaemorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae, native to cool temperate regions, alpine and arctic tundra and boreal forest. This herbaceous perennial produces amber-colored edible fruit similar to the blackbe ...

(''Rubus chamaemorus''), mosses and lichens. The tidal zones of the

Gros Mécatina River The Gros Mécatina River (french: Rivière du Gros Mécatina) is a salmon river in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It empties into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Location The Gros Mécatina River is about long, and originates in Lac Bouch ...

and the

Véco River The Véco River (french: Rivière Véco) is a salmon river in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada, that empties into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It has been dammed to supply a hydroelectric power plant. The shoreline around the mouth of the riv ...

are outside the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Gros-Mécatina and are managed by the bird sanctuary.

Administration

The sanctuary was designated a Migratory Bird Sanctuary with

IUCN Management Category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is par ...

"Ia" in 1996. The purpose is to protect the nesting sites of seabirds. It is fully protected and access is forbidden. It is owned by the Federal Ministry of Natural Resources and Wildlife and is subject to the Migratory Birds Convention Act, the Canada Wildlife Act and the Regulations on migratory bird sanctuaries.

Birds

At one time the site was used for nesting by thousands of

common murre The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...

(''Uria aalge''), but due to egg collecting and illegal hunting by 2010 there were only 12 of these birds in the sanctuary. Terns are sometimes the most common birds in the sanctuary, with 1,800 counted in 2005. Other birds that form colonies on the islands include

Atlantic puffin The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin is found in the northeastern ...

(''Fratercula arctica''),

black guillemot The black guillemot or tystie (''Cepphus grylle'') is a medium-sized seabird of the Alcidae family, native throughout northern Atlantic coasts and eastern North American coasts. It is resident in much of its range, but large populations from the ...

(''Cepphus grylle''),

razorbill The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser auk (''Alca torda'') is a colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus '' Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinis impe ...

(''Alca torda''),

American herring gull The American herring gull or Smithsonian gull (''Larus smithsonianus'' or ''Larus argentatus smithsonianus'') is a large gull that breeds in North America, where it is treated by the American Ornithological Society as a subspecies of herring gull ...

(''Larus smithsonianus''), great black-backed gull (''Larus marinus''),

black-legged kittiwake The black-legged kittiwake (''Rissa tridactyla'') is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae. This species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' as ''Larus tridactylus''. The English ...

(''Rissa tridactyla''),

great cormorant The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a w ...

(''Phalacrocorax carbo'') and

double-crested cormorant The double-crested cormorant (''Nannopterum auritum'') is a member of the cormorant family of water birds. It is found near rivers and lakes, and in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alas ...

(''Phalacrocorax auritus'').

Notes

Sources

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