St. Pauls Inlet: a biological re-assessment of zooplankton and fish populations within an estuarine system in Western Newfoundland

Abstract

St. Pauls Inlet is a fjord-type estuary on the western coast of insular Newfoundland. It has been classified as a marine area of interest by the Canadian Parks and Wildlife Society (Rao et al. 2009). The inlet can be defined as an estuarine system in that it is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with a free connection to the sea and within which the sea water is measurably diluted with fresh water (Pritchard 1967). The area is also characteristic of fjordal landscapes as a result of the glacial sculpting which occurred in western Newfoundland approximately 12, 000 years ago (Rogerson 1983).