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 , swordfish , haddock and capelin , as well as shellfish, seabirds and sea mammals.
23-426: White Thunder may refer to: original title of The Viking (1931 film) White Thunder , a 2002 documentary about Varick Frissell , producer of The Viking White Thunder (film) , a 1925 film starring Yakima Canutt nickname of Scott Steiner , American professional wrestler White Thunder, Cheyenne medicine man and father of Owl Woman Topics referred to by
46-536: A European presence near the Grand Banks survives from the period between the short-lived Greenland Norse settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in 1000 CE and John Cabot 's transatlantic crossing in 1497, some evidence suggests that voyagers from the Basque Region and England (specifically from Bristol ) and others preceded Cabot. In the 15th century some texts refer to a land called Bacalao ,
69-646: A full-length feature entitled Vikings of the Ice Field . Paramount Pictures put up $ 100,000 to finance the production, while insisting that Hollywood personnel be used. Frissell hired director George Melford, who had attended McGill University in Montreal and had experience in filming Canadian subjects previously. By 1930, Frissell had completed most of the principal photography on location in Quidi Vidi . For realistic footage, Frissell then took his crew to
92-418: A local man considered a jinx . Worried that his rival may try to steal his girlfriend Mary Joe, calling him a coward, the seal hunter goads Luke into accompanying him on an Arctic sealing expedition on Viking , commanded by Capt. Barker. They both end up in a hunting party on the ice floes and eventually find themselves stranded. Jed tries to kill Luke, but the snow blinds him and his gunshot misses. Despite
115-437: A pin-shaped section at the west edge of the Grand Banks, with the 22 kilometres (12 nmi; 14 mi) radius head of the pin surrounding the islands and the needle heading south for 348 km (188 nmi; 216 mi). Canada is performing the hydrographic and geological surveys necessary for claiming the entire continental shelf off eastern Canada, as allowed by the terms of the latest United Nations Convention on
138-506: A rare Atlantic tsunami that struck the south coast of Newfoundland , claiming 29 lives on the Burin Peninsula . Technological advances in fishing (such as using large factory-ships and sonar ), as well as geopolitical disputes over territorial sea and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundaries, led to overfishing and a serious decline in the fish stocks of the Grand Banks from around 1990. The Canadian Grand Banks fishery
161-532: A stowaway were killed in an explosion. Some of the survivors made the over-ice trek to the Horse Islands, while others were rescued by vessels dispatched to the area. Despite the fatal accident, the film was completed and released in June 1931. The title was changed from White Thunder to The Viking . A French-language version Ceux du Viking was released in 1932. Reviews for The Viking varied, while
184-420: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages The Viking (1931 film) The Viking ( French : Ceux du Viking ), also known as White Thunder and Vikings of the Ice Field , is a 1931 Newfoundland/American adventure film about sealing directed by George Melford . The Viking was the first film to record sound and dialogue on location, with
207-793: The Grand Banks and Labrador to film action sequences. The film was privately shown at the Nickel Theatre at St. John's on March 5, 1931. After this screening, Frissell decided that his film needed more real scenes from the Labrador ice floes. Within days, Frissell and his crew had joined the SS Viking for its annual seal hunt. The ship got trapped in ice near the Horse Islands . On March 15, 1931, while trying to film an iceberg, Frissell, Alexander Penrod, 25 crew members and
230-512: The closure of the Canadian Grand Banks fishery in 1992. Extensive glaciation took place in the area of the Grand Banks during the last glacial maximum . By approximately 13,000 years ago the majority of the ice had melted, leaving the Grand Banks exposed as several islands extending for hundreds of kilometres. It is believed that rising sea levels submerged these around 8,000 years ago. While no archaeological evidence for
253-649: The 1990 film The Hunt for Red October . Herman Melville described passing through the Banks as a young sailor on his first voyage in his autobiographical novel Redburn: His First Voyage (1849), where he saw whales and a haunting shipwreck with weeks-dead sailors still on board. It is also featured in The Grey Seas Under , a non-fiction book by Canadian author Farley Mowat about the ocean-going maritime salvage tug Foundation Franklin . The Canadian patriotic song " Something to Sing About " opens with
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#1732791214356276-655: The Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Petroleum reserves have also been discovered and a number of oil fields are under development in this region, most notably the Hibernia , Terra Nova , and White Rose projects. However, the harsh environment on the Grand Banks also led to the Ocean Ranger disaster. The Northwest Atlantic Ocean is undergoing long-term warming from anthropogenic climate change . The surface water temperatures of
299-637: The Newfoundland Shelf have increased by 0.13 °C per decade from 1950 to 2016. Depth-averaged ocean temperatures (0–175 m) have not shown a warming trend during that same period. Semi-fictional depictions of fishermen working on the Grand Banks can be found in Rudyard Kipling 's novel Captains Courageous (1897) and in Sebastian Junger's non-fiction book The Perfect Storm (1997). The Grand Banks are also portrayed in
322-551: The North American continental shelf . These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from 15 to 91 metres (50 to 300 ft) in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream here, often causing extreme foggy conditions . The mixing of these waters and the shape of the ocean bottom lifts nutrients to the surface. These conditions helped to create one of the richest fishing grounds in
345-545: The Spanish and Portuguese fishing-industries in this area. The fish stocks became important for the early European-settler economies of eastern Canada and New England . On 18 November 1929, the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake struck the southwestern part of the Grand Banks bordering the Laurentian Channel , causing an underwater landslide which resulted in extensive damage to transatlantic cables and generated
368-517: The attempt on his life, Luke helps walk the blinded Jed across the ice floes back to Newfoundland after they are unable to return to the ship. On recovering his sight at home, Jed gains new respect for his rival and vows that he will beat senseless any man who derides the character of his new friend. As listed in the credits: American-born producer Varick Frissell's previous short films , The Lure of Labrador and The Swilin' Racket (also known as The Great Arctic Seal Hunt ), prompted him to make
391-501: The land of the codfish, which is possibly Newfoundland. Within a few years of Cabot's voyage the existence of fishing grounds on the Grand Banks became generally known in Europe. Ships from France and Portugal pioneered fishing there, followed by vessels from Spain , while ships from England were scarce in the early years. This soon changed, especially after Bernard Drake 's Newfoundland Expedition in 1585 , which virtually wiped out
414-423: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title White Thunder . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=White_Thunder&oldid=1084307327 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
437-441: The story "melodramatic" and the screenplay uninteresting in comparison to the cinematography. The Film Daily gave a negative review, noting the "weakness" of the story. White Thunder , a National Film Board documentary on Varick Frissell's life, directed by Newfoundlander Victoria King, was released in 2002. Grand Banks The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus south-east of Newfoundland on
460-447: The story was generally panned. The New York Times review referred to the film's story as "sketchy". The reviewer, however, noted: "'The Viking', like Mr Varick's silent work, 'The Swilin' Racket', has many marvelous scenes of the ice fields and of the adventures of men on a seal hunt off Labrador. It is enhanced by being made with sound effects, but the dialogue, like the story, is merely incidental." The Theater Guild Magazine found
483-409: The use of magnetic wire recording . It is best known for the explosion aboard the ship SS Viking (an actual sealing ship) during filming, in which many members of the crew, including producer Varick Frissell , were killed. It remains the incident with the largest loss of life in film history. Set on the coast of Newfoundland, a rivalry develops between Jed Nelson, a seal hunter, and Luke Oarum,
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#1732791214356506-419: The world. Fish species include Atlantic cod , swordfish , haddock and capelin ; shellfish include scallop and lobster . The area also supports large colonies of seabirds such as northern gannets , shearwaters and sea ducks and various sea mammals such as seals , dolphins and whales . Overfishing in the late 20th century caused the collapse of several species, particularly cod, leading to
529-678: Was closed in 1993. Canada 's EEZ currently covers the majority of the Grand Banks except for the lucrative "nose" (eastern extremity, near the Flemish Cap ) and "tail" (southern extremity) of the fishing bank . The 1783 Treaty of Paris gave the United States shared rights to fish in these waters, but that section of the Treaty is no longer in force. The exclusive economic zone of the French territory Saint Pierre and Miquelon occupies
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