The Chécatica River () is a salmon river in the
Côte-Nord
Côte-Nord (Region 09) (, ; ) is an List of regions of Quebec, administrative region of Quebec, on the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, Canada.
The region runs along the St. Lawrence River and then the Gulf of St. Lawrence, ...
region of Quebec, Canada. It empties into the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence
The Gulf of St. Lawrence is a gulf that fringes the shores of the provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada, plus the islands Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, possessions of France, in ...
.
Location
The Chécatica River is about long, and runs from north to south.
In some sections it widens into lakes, including Lake Chécatica.
It enters Jacques-Cartier Bay on the Saint Lawrence about west of
Blanc-Sablon.
The bay is a waterbody with an irregular outline, containing many points, inlets and islands.
Chécatica Island is at the entrance to the bay.
Along the coast to the west, near one of the inlets, there is a small hamlet named Shekatika.
The mouth of the Chécatica River is in the municipality of
Saint-Augustin in Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality.
Name
The
Innu
The Innu/Ilnu ('man, person'), formerly called Montagnais (French for ' mountain people'; ), are the Indigenous Canadians who inhabit northeastern Labrador in present-day Newfoundland and Labrador and some portions of Quebec. They refer to ...
call the river Netshikatikau Hipis or Netsheskatakau Shipis.
According to Father Georges Lemoine the name comes from ''shikatikau'' and means ''there are bushes beside the water''.
Variants include Ouescatacou and Ouescatacouau.
On his first voyage in 1534
Jacques Cartier
Jacques Cartier (; 31 December 14911 September 1557) was a French maritime explorer from Brittany. Jacques Cartier was the first Europeans, European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, wh ...
went by
shallop
Shallop is a name used for several types of boats and small ships (French ''chaloupe'') used for coastal navigation from the seventeenth century. Originally smaller boats based on the chalupa, the watercraft named this ranged from small boats a ...
to Chécatica, which he called Port de Jacques-Cartier.
He found indigenous people in quite large numbers.
Basin
The river basin covers .
It lies between the basins of the
Coxipi River to the west and the
Napetipi River
The Napetipi River () is a salmon river in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It empties into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
Location
The Napetipi River is long, of which about or 10.7% is in Labrador.
The river's Strahler number is 5.
The m ...
to the east.
It is partly in the unorganized territory of
Petit-Mécatina and partly in the municipality of Saint-Augustin.
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 river in sub-regions 6o-T, 6n-T and 6m-T of the east spruce/moss subdomain.
In 2002 the northern part of the river, to the east of Lake Tooker, was in territory that was seriously affected by
hemlock looper moths (''Lambdina fiscellaria'').
The river is recognized as an
Atlantic salmon
The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Hucho taimen, Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlan ...
river.
There are also
brook trout
The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada. Two ecological forms of brook trout h ...
in the river.
Notes
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chécatica River
Rivers of Côte-Nord