Look at these icebergs off the coast of Newfoundland

An iceberg near St. John’s has drawn residents of the provincial capital to take in the views. (Image courtesy Laura Chisholm White)

A resurgence of icebergs near Newfoundland and Labrador has been met with plenty of celebration this month - especially after a relatively quiet year in 2024. The sightings have prompted a flood of posts, photos, and stories on social media.

An iceberg near St. John’s, closer to the town of Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove, has delighted residents of the provincial capital this week. Icebergs are more often seen in central and western parts of the province, requiring a commitment to visit.

“We live in a great part of the world where we can actually experience this on a regular basis,” said Patrick Collins, a Newfoundland ex-patriate who returns to St. John’s regularly to visit family and friends.

His partner, Karen Collins, has been making those visits too. But this was the first time she had seen an iceberg in person.

“It’s amazing,” she concluded. “I thought it would be just a little speck, but it’s quite larger than I thought.”

An iceberg near St. John’s, closer to the town of Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove, has delighted residents of the provincial capital this week. Icebergs are more often seen in central and western parts of the province, requiring a commitment to visit.

“It looks like a crystal, a pearl on the ocean,” added Jing Wu, who moved to Newfoundland with his wife in 2018 for work but has only seen icebergs twice.

The province’s iceberg resurgence has prompted a flood of posts, photos and stories on social media.

There’s no question there’s been an uptick in visible sightings compared to last spring, but iceberg spotting experts at C-CORE, a remote sensing lab in St. John’s, say it’s still well below historical numbers.

In 2024, vice-president Desmond Power explained, an El Nino weather pattern brought warmer-than-usual water temperatures to the North Atlantic. That has rebounded somewhat, Power says, though temperatures were still warmer than usual throughout the winter.

“We had expected the Iceberg situation to be pretty light this season, and in fact, we are pretty light this season,” he explained. “Just not as light as last year.”

There are regional variations too, Power said. Communities further west and north are seeing relatively more icebergs, and south and east relatively fewer.

“I look at this as, hey, you know what, this might be actually a new normal year.”

Power’s C-CORE lab has been hired to track icebergs for offshore oil and gas vessels — who can find them rather troublesome — and for the provincial government, who advertises their positions for tourists trying to take a peek.

It’s a big driver for visitors from out of province. But after a little bit of time away, many locals find they’re drawn to the spectacle for themselves just as much.

As 81-year-old Roy Chaytor observed, it brings to mind a conflict between stillness and motion — how is it, he asked, the icebergs could appear so stationary while the cold Atlantic Ocean whips so quickly around them?

“You can come and drink a cup of tea, and look at the Iceberg and try to figure out: Is it on the bottom?” Chaytor said. “It must be because it’s staying there. If it were not on the bottom, it’d be moving inward and coming in, coming in, coming in.”