Baccalieu Island or Bacalhoo Island ()

Ecological Reserve

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Baccalieu Island is the largest seabird island in Newfoundland and supports the greatest diversity of breeding seabirds in eastern North America. The island supports the largest known colony of Leach's storm-petrel in the world, approximately 40% of the global population and about 70% of the western Atlantic population of this species. It is a nesting area for 11 breeding species:

  • Atlantic puffin (45,000 pairs - approximately 12% of the eastern North America population)
  • Black-legged kittiwake (13,000 - approximately 5 to 7% of the western Atlantic breeding population); and
  • Northern gannet (677 pairs - approximately 1.5% of the North American population).
  • Northern fulmar
  • Black guillemot
  • Common murre
  • Thick-billed murre
  • Razorbill
  • Herring gull
  • Great black-backed gull
  • The island also includes one of the largest winter populations of eider in Newfoundland.

The island has a surface of 5&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>, and the reserve spans 23&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>, including all of the island and one kilometre of ocean around the coast.

Lighthouses

Historically, two lighthouses were operated on Baccalieu Island; today both are automated. The lighthouse on the northern end is not operational any more; its light was extinguished in the early 1990s. This lighthouse was replaced as an aid to navigation by an automated light on a skeletal tower. It was originally a brick tower and was later encased in iron. The two storey residence attached was removed after 1950. The old tower's data:

  • Tower height:
  • Height of focal plane:
  • Description: Red, conical cast iron
  • Date established: 1859
  • Date present tower built: 1858
  • Date deactivated: 1990s
  • Current use: Unknown
  • Open to public: No

Lighthouse Keepers

North Light Keepers

  • James Ryan (1858 - 1874) (died 1875)
  • John Ryan (1874 - 1891) (died 1891)
  • Francis "Frank" Ryan (1891 - 1941) (died 1942)
  • James Francis Ryan (1941 - 1950) (died 1994)
  • Vincent Keough (1950-?)
  • Joseph Hatch
  • Felix Noonan (1963)
  • Eric Blundon
  • John Hyde
  • James Meaney Jr. (assistant under Frank Ryan) (died 1939)

Southwest Light Keepers

  • William Cranford (1908 - 1911)
  • Duncan Blundon (1912 - ?)
  • Joseph Burse
  • William Blundon
  • Oliver Blundon
  • Arthur Young
  • John F. Hatch
  • Patrick Rice
  • F. J. Noonan
  • Raymond J. Hyde
  • Linus Walsh (? - 2002)

Ghost ship

In 1884 the merchant brig Resolven was found abandoned in the waters off Baccalieu and Catalina, Newfoundland and Labrador. The fate of the crew is unknown.

See also

  • List of lighthouses in Newfoundland and Labrador
  • List of lighthouses in Canada
  • "The Cliffs of Baccalieu"

Notes

  • Buoys, Lights and Aids to Navigation Canadian Coast Guard
  • Baccalieu Trail
  • Historical Baccalieu Trail
  • Newfoundland Heritage Site
  • Lighthouse Digest
  • Baccalieu Island Ecological Reserve homepage
  • PDF map of the island and the reserve
  • Picture of Baccalieu Island Lighthouse