The Napetipi River (french: Rivière Napetipi) is a salmon river in the
Côte-Nord
Côte-Nord (, ; ; land area ) is the second-largest administrative region by land area in Quebec, Canada, after Nord-du-Québec. It covers much of the northern shore of the Saint Lawrence River estuary and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence past Tadous ...
region of Quebec, Canada. It empties into the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence
, image = Baie de la Tour.jpg
, alt =
, caption = Gulf of St. Lawrence from Anticosti National Park, Quebec
, image_bathymetry = Golfe Saint-Laurent Depths fr.svg
, alt_bathymetry = Bathymetry ...
.
Location
The Napetipi River is long, of which about or 10.7% is in Labrador.
The river's
Strahler number is 5.
The main channel's headwaters are at an elevation of about .
It falls steeply in the upper sections, by nearly in the first , then becomes flatter and in the last drops by only or so.
Along most of its length it flows between high rocky shores.
It widens along its length to form Lake Jamyn (or Napetipiu Nipi) and Lake Napetipi about from its mouth.
The mouth of the river is in the municipality of
Saint-Augustin in Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality.
The mouth is about from the village of Saint-Augustin.
The river empties into the narrow Napetipi Bay which reaches inland for about between high rocky shores.
It provides little shelter from southerly winds.
Name
The name Napetipi is
Innu in origin and means "river of man".
Some authors suggest the Saint-Jacques River, mentioned by
Jacques Cartier during his first voyage in 1534, was the Napetipi River and bay.
In his 1890 report on the Napetipi River, surveyor Henry Robertson mentions that "there are many seals in Napetipi Lake".
Description
The ''Dictionnaire des rivières et lacs de la province de Québec'' (1914) says,
Basin
The Napetipi River basin covers .
It lies between the basins of the
Chécatica River to the west and the
Saint-Paul River to the east.
About or 4.7% of the watershed is in Labrador.
The average elevation of the watershed is , rising to over in the north, with the highest point at .
The Quebec portion is partly in the unorganized territory of
Petit-Mécatina and partly in the municipalities of Saint-Augustin and
Bonne-Espérance.
Environment
A map of the
ecological regions of Quebec
The Ecological regions of Quebec are regions with specific types of vegetation and climates as defined by the Quebec Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks.
Given the size of this huge province, there is wide variation from the temperate deciduou ...
shows the Napetipi River in sub-regions 6o-T, 6n-T and 6m-T of the east spruce/moss subdomain.
85.4% of the watershed is forested, and 3.5% has other forms of dry land vegetation. 8.3% is water covered, and 1.2% is wetlands.
Annual daily mean temperature is , ranging from in January to in July.
Annual precipitation is .
The river basin include part of the proposed Basses Collines du Lac Guernesé Biodiversity Reserve.
The biodiversity reserve would protect that part of the river from hydroelectric development.
The basin is home to mammals such as
black bear
Black bear or Blackbear may refer to:
Animals
* American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species
* Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species
Music
* Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations group ...
,
moose
The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...
,
wolf
The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...
,
American mink
The American mink (''Neogale vison'') is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to North America, though human intervention has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia and South America. Because of range expansion, the American mink i ...
and
red fox.
Fishing
The Napetipi River is recognized as an
Atlantic salmon river.
The waters are cool, and salmon are unusually energetic.
Other fish are
anadromous brook trout and
brown trout.
The Napetipi River Outfiters has exclusive rights, located on the shore of Lake Pareme, north-west of Lake Napetipi.
They recommend the release of all catches.
The river had exceeded its target for salmon management, and in July 2018 the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks announced that in August anglers could keep their catch of one large salmon or longer in the
Gros Mécatina, Napetipi,
Saint-Paul, Vieux Fort and
Matapedia rivers.
Notes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Napetipi River
Rivers of Côte-Nord