Mary's Harbour is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

. The town had a population of 312 in the

Canada 2021 Census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

, down from 341 in the

Canada 2016 Census The 2016 Canadian census was an enumeration of Canadian residents, which counted a population of 35,151,728, a change from its 2011 population of 33,476,688. The census, conducted by Statistics Canada, was Canada's seventh quinquennial census ...

. It is serviced by Mary's Harbour Airport. Mary's Harbour surrounds the St. Mary's River, which was the site of a salmon fishery as early as the 1780s. However, Mary's Harbour was not a permanent settlement until after a fire at

Battle Harbour Battle Harbour (Inuttitut: ''Putlavak'') is a summer fishing station, formerly a permanent settlement, located on the Labrador coast in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Battle Harbour was for two centuries the economic and soci ...

in 1930. The

International Grenfell Association The International Grenfell Association (IGA) is an organization founded by Sir Wilfred Grenfell to provide health care, education, religious services, and rehabilitation and other social activities to the fisherman and coastal communities in norther ...

decided to relocate its hospital and boarding school, destroyed by the fire, from Battle Harbour to Mary's Harbour. Mary's Harbour has always depended on the fishery for its livelihood. Since the

Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery In 1992, Northern Cod populations fell to 1% of historical levels, due in large part to decades of overfishing. The Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, John Crosbie, declared a moratorium on the Northern Cod fishery, which f ...

the community has thrived on the

crab fishery Crab fisheries are fisheries which capture or farm crabs. True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed annually. The horse crab, ''Portunus trituberculatus'', accounts for ...

. The Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company employs over 120 people at the local crab processing facility. It is also the gateway to the National Historic District of

Climate

Mary's Harbour has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of an ocean, ge ...

(

Koppen Koppen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Dan Koppen (born 1979), American football offensive lineman * Erwin Koppen (1929–1990), German literary scholar * Luise Koppen (1855–1922), German author * Wladimir Köppen (1846� ...

: Dfc) with cold winters in spite of its marine position, courtesy of the cold waters of the

Labrador Current The Labrador Current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean which flows from the Arctic Ocean south along the coast of Labrador and passes around Newfoundland, continuing south along the east coast of Canada near Nova Scotia. Near Nova Sco ...

. Being located on the same latitude around from almost frost-free areas of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, the difference between the two Atlantic coastlines is rather extreme. As typical of eastern Canada, Mary's Harbour receives heavy snowfall each winter. Unusually for such a climate, it has a pronounced

seasonal lag Seasonal lag is the phenomenon whereby the date of maximum average air temperature at a geographical location on a planet is delayed until some time after the date of maximum insolation (i.e. the summer solstice). This also applies to the minimum ...

, especially in the summer, with September averaging warmer than June and October warmer than May. A more typical subarctic climate, like

Oymyakon Oymyakon, ; sah, Өймөкөөн, ''Öymököön'', is a rural locality (a '' selo'') in Oymyakonsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located in the Yana-Oymyakon Highlands, along the Indigirka River, northwest of Tomtor on the Kolyma ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

has a temperature lag of only about 15 days.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultur ...

, Mary's Harbour had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Notable residents

Yvonne Jones Yvonne Jean Jones (born March 15, 1968) is a Canadian politician in Newfoundland and Labrador, who was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a by-election on May 13, 2013. She represents the district of Labrador as a member of the Liberal ...

, Member of Parliament for

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

; former Leader of the

Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador The Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador is a political party in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The party is the provincial branch, and affiliate of the federal Liberal Party of Canada. It has served as the Government o ...

References

Towns in Newfoundland and Labrador Populated places in Labrador {{Labrador-geo-stub

Climate

Demographics

Notable residents

See also

References