Witless Bay

Four islands off Witless Bay hold seabirds in numbers that are hard to take in: over half a million Atlantic puffins, the largest colony in North America, along with hundreds of thousands of Leach's storm-petrels, common murres and kittiwakes. They breed from May into August and the burrows cover the island slopes. At the same time capelin, a small fish, roll onto the beaches to spawn, and humpback whales follow them inshore in large numbers, so the same boat trip usually delivers both. Icebergs sometimes drift down at the start of the season. Landing on the islands is prohibited.

History

The name is said to come from Captain Whittle, who brought his family from Dorset; when he died his widow and children went back to England, and Whittle's Bay, now without its Whittles, became Witless Bay. In 1675 the settlement had 34 people, Irish fishing servants arriving in the 1700s soon outnumbered the English, the census of 1836 counted 542, nearly all of them Roman Catholic, a church opened in 1845 and the Presentation Sisters a convent and girls' school in 1860, and the town was incorporated in 1986 (Wikipedia, Witless Bay).

The landscape

• The puffin colony - over half a million birds, the largest in North America.
• The humpbacks - whales following capelin close inshore in summer.
• The murres and kittiwakes - cliff-nesting seabirds in hundreds of thousands.
• The capelin roll - small fish spawning on the beaches, drawing everything else.

When to go

June and July for the overlap of puffins at their peak and whales arriving with the capelin; puffins leave through August. Icebergs are a late spring bonus. Fog cancels trips.

Things to know

Landing on the islands is prohibited, so viewing is from the boat. Fog and swell cancel a significant share of trips. Puffins have largely left by late August.

Nearby

Cape Spear lies north; Ferryland is south.