Icebergs moving in swift and steady, say tour operators

After six months of winter, you might think people in Newfoundland and Labrador would be tired of seeing ice.

You'd be wrong at least, as far as icebergs are concerned.

The Iceberg Finder website lists 124 bergs spotted around the province's coastline, and tour operator Andrew McCarthy, with McCarthy's Party, says the photogenic giants are already a hit this season.

"I wouldn't describe it as 'hunting' this year," McCarthy said. "There's just so many icebergs, you can just look out anywhere. They're unreal.We were in Bay de Verde on Sunday and one of the guides counted 19 monstrous bergs on the horizon."

McCarthy said the coastline and scenery are the most popular things he hears from tourists about why they decide to visit the province.

"It really is the ice this time of the year. My father always says, 'Anybody can be a tour guide on a fine day in Newfoundland.' When you've got ice, it's simple. They're just running to take pictures," McCarthy told CBC's St. John's Morning Show.

"It really is just so magnificent, so overwhelming. They, in many ways, find it very difficult even to realize what it is they're looking at and the significance of it."

The International Ice Survey, which tracks icebergs that drift south toward the Avalon Peninsula, said at the end of April, it counted 679 icebergs. In an average year, that number is around 364.

So many more icebergs survived than usual because of the heavy and dense sea ice around the province's coastline this winter, according to the International Ice Survey, as that sea ice protects the icebergs from breaking apart.

'It's a good start'

Up in Twillingate, the icebergs are moving closer and closer to the coastline every day, as pack ice continues shifting, says Cecil Stockley, who operates Iceberg Man Tours.

"It's a good start to it, that's for sure," he said.

"I would say the icebergs started arriving around here probably two weeks ago. It was pretty quiet before that. There were icebergs offshore, talking to some of my fishermen friends,but then very suddenly they started to hit the shoreline."

Since Twillingate is an island community, Stockley said, you can see plenty of bergs from the shore.

"The icebergs kinda surround the island, really. Nothing huge in numbers, but there's a fair number of icebergs around," he told CBC Newfoundland Morning.

But when it comes to predicting iceberg and tourist seasons, Stockley said there are no guarantees.

"I've been in the business for 35 years of touring so I've learned a lot of stuff over the years, and sometimes what's important is that the icebergs and the movement of the icebergs and the movement of people, hopefully they can line up together," he said.

"Optimism always exists, but I like to see things line up. I'm happy to see what's happening right now and hopefully they're gonna hang around for the peak time."

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