Editing Gulf of St. Lawrence (section)

== History ==
[[File:Basques Newfoundland.gif|thumb|Basque settlements and sites dating from the 16th and 17th centuries]]

The gulf has provided a historically important marine fishery for various [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] that have lived on its shores for millennia and used its waters for transportation.<ref name="A Brief History of the Gulf Region">{{cite web |title=A Brief History of the Gulf Region |url=https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/library-bibliotheque/347353.pdf |website=Fisheries Peches and Ocean Canada |publisher=Gulf region |access-date=10 August 2024 |pages=14 |date=1991 |quote=We must manage the Gulf fishery as a biological reality, not as a battlefield for provincial ambitions}}</ref><ref name="Action River, Discovering the St. Lawrence">{{cite web |title=Action River, Discovering the St. Lawrence |url=https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2015/ec/En154-41-2014-eng.pdf |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=14 August 2024 |pages=7 of 32 |date=24 November 2015 |quote=The Aboriginal people were the first to benefit from the abundant resources of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence: water, game, fish and marine mammals.}}</ref><ref name="Iroquoians in the St. Lawrence River Valley before European Contact">{{cite web |author1=Christian Gates St-Pierre |title=Iroquoians in the St. Lawrence River Valley before European Contact |url=https://ontarioarchaeology.org/wp-content/uploads/oa096-06_Gates_St-Pierre.pdf |access-date=14 August 2024 |pages=18 |date=9 July 2017 |quote=At the time of contact with the first Europeans, the St. Lawrence Iroquoians occupied a territory that extended from the mouth of Lake Ontario to the Cap Tourmente area, near Quebec City, with a southward extension to the northern tip of Lake Champlain, as well as seasonal extensions into the estuary and the gulf of St. Lawrence. D}}</ref>{{citation needed|date=April 2021}}

The first documented voyage by a European in its waters was by the French explorer [[Jacques Cartier]] in [[1534]]. Cartier named the shores of the [[St. Lawrence River]] "The Country of Canadas", after an indigenous word meaning "village" or "settlement", thus naming the world's second largest country.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cartier-discovers-st-lawrence-river/| title = French navigator Jacques Cartier sails the St. Lawrence River|publisher = A&E Television Networks| access-date = 14 June 2021}}</ref>

[[History of Basque whaling|Basque whalers]] from [[Saint-Jean-de-Luz]] sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1530 and began whaling at [[Red Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador|Red Bay]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/nl/redbay | title=Red Bay National Historic Site | date=9 February 2022 }}</ref> They established their base on the [[Strait of Belle Isle]]<ref name="Strait of Belle Isle, toponymy" /> and worked closely with the [[Iroquois]] in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1579 the English government closed all English ports to Spanish oil imports. As a result, a third of Basque [[whale oil]] could not be sold. Basque whaling collapsed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and never recovered.