Georges Bank

Georges Bank is a large elevated area of the sea floor which separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean and is situated between Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA) and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (Canada).

The origin of its name is obscure. The Velasco map in 1610 prepared for King James I of England used the name 'S. Georges Banck'; a common practice where the English patron saint St. George's name was sprinkled around the English colonized world. By the 1850s it was known as simply as Georges Bank.

Physical environment

Georges Bank is oval shaped and measures approximately 149 miles (240 kilometres) in length by 75 miles (120 kilometres) in width, making it larger in area than Massachusetts. Located 62 miles (100 kilometres) offshore, Georges Bank is part of the continental shelf and during the Wisconsin glaciation was actually part of the North American mainland. Georges Bank is now submerged, and its depths range from several metres to several dozen metres, placing almost the entire bank fully 330 feet (100 m) (or more) shallower than the Gulf of Maine to the north.

Georges Bank is the most westward of the great Atlantic fishing banks - those now submerged portions of the North American mainland which now comprise the continental shelf running from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland to Georges.

Gulf of Maine shelf waters are the Bank's primary source. They enter the northern flank, move clockwise around the eastern end, and then westward along the southern flank,...
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