The Flemish Cap is an area of shallow waters in the north

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

centered roughly at 47° north, 45° west or about 563 km (350 miles) east of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The shallow water is caused by a wide

underwater plateau An oceanic or submarine plateau is a large, relatively flat elevation that is higher than the surrounding relief with one or more relatively steep sides. There are 184 oceanic plateaus in the world, covering an area of or about 5.11% of the ...

covering an extended area of 42,000 km² (12,000 square miles). Depths at the cap range from approximately 122 m (400 feet) to 700 m (2,300 feet). The Flemish Cap is located within an area of transition between 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 ...

and warmer waters influenced by the

Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Current, North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows through the Straits of Florida a ...

. The mixing of the warmer and colder waters over the plateau produces the characteristic clockwise circulation current over the cap. The waters of the Flemish Cap are deeper and warmer than the

Grand Banks of Newfoundland The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordf ...

. The 58,000-square-kilometre area may have served as an important refuge for marine species during the last

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...

.Overfishing and International Fisheries and Oceans Governance - Backgrounder - The Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap

Government of Canada
Retrieved on May 1, 2007. The Flemish Cap lies outside

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

's 200 nautical mile (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone established in 1977, and is therefore in international fishing waters.

Overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing fish stock), resulting in th ...

became a serious issue in the latter 20th & early 21st centuries.

Cod Cod is the common name for the demersal fish genus '' Gadus'', belonging to the family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gadus'' is commonly not call ...

are particularly threatened here, as are

American plaice The American plaice, American sole or long rough dab (''Hippoglossoides platessoides'') is a North Atlantic flatfish that belongs, along with other right-eyed flounders, to the family Pleuronectidae. In the northwest Atlantic (''H. p. platessoide ...

, and the numbers of

redfish Redfish is a common name for several species of fish. It is most commonly applied to certain deep-sea rockfish in the genus ''Sebastes'', red drum from the genus ''Sciaenops'' or the reef dwelling snappers in the genus ''Lutjanus''. It is also app ...

have shown such significant decline as to be classified endangered. During the last decade of the 20th century & the beginning part of the 21st century, Canada made an effort to prevent overfishing in the region by use of provisions of the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement. According to early written accounts dating back to 1607, the Flemish Cap's name is a reminder that fishermen from

Flanders Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, ...

were once active in the area.

Film

This area was filmed by

Wolfgang Petersen Wolfgang Petersen (14 March 1941 – 12 August 2022) was a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the World War II submarine warfare film ''Das Boot'' (1981). His other films include ''The Ne ...

in his 2000 film '' The Perfect Storm'' as the final fishing grounds of ''

Andrea Gail F/V ''Andrea Gail'' was a commercial fishing vessel that was lost at sea with all hands during the Perfect Storm of 1991. The vessel and her six-man crew had been fishing the North Atlantic Ocean out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Her last report ...

'', captained by Billy Tyne (

George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by George Clooney, numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Awards, British Academy Film A ...

). Swordfish was their primary catch.

References

External links

*Dead links
Overfishing:The Grand Banks and the Flemish Cap

{{Coord, 47, N, 45, W, source:enwiki-plaintext-parser, display=title Fishing areas of the Atlantic Ocean Landforms of Newfoundland and Labrador Undersea banks of the Atlantic Ocean Oceanography of Canada