
The Cabot Strait lies north of Cape Brenton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada
'Cabot Strait' () is a
strait in eastern
Canada approximately 110
kilometres wide between
Cape Ray,
Newfoundland and
Cape North,
Cape Breton Island. It is the widest of the three outlets for the
Gulf of Saint Lawrence into the
Atlantic Ocean, the others being the
Strait of Belle Isle and
Strait of Canso. It is named for the
Genoese explorer
Giovanni Caboto.
The strait's bathymetry is varied, with the
Laurentian Channel creating a deep trench through its centre, and comparatively shallow coastal waters closer to Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island. These bathymetric conditions have been known by mariners to cause
rogue waves. The steep slope of the Laurentian Channel was the site of a disastrous submarine landslide at the southeastern end of the strait, triggered by the
1929 Grand Banks earthquake and leading to a
tsunami that devastated communities along Newfoundland's south coast and parts of Cape Breton Island.
A strategically important waterway throughout Canadian and Newfoundland history, the strait is also an important international shipping route, being the primary waterway linking the Atlantic with inland ports on the
Great Lakes and
St. Lawrence Seaway.
The strait is crossed daily by the
Marine Atlantic ferry service linking
Channel-Port aux Basques, and
North Sydney.
Ferries have been operating across the strait since
1898 and a submarine
telegraph cable was laid in
1856 as part of the
transatlantic telegraph cable project.
An infamous location in the strait for
shipwrecks during the
age of sail,
St. Paul's Island, came to be referred to as the ''"Graveyard of the Gulf" (of St. Lawrence)''.
On a very clear day, both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland can be seen from the middle of the strait.