Gulf of St. Lawrence

body of water covering about 60,000 square miles at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. It fringes the shores of half the provinces of Canada and is a gateway to the interior of the entire North American continent. Its name is not entirely accurate, for in a hydrologic context the gulf has to be considered more as a sea bordering the North American continent than as simply a river mouth. Its boundaries may be taken as the maritime estuary at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, in the vicinity of Anticosti Island, on the west; the Strait of Belle Isle between Newfoundland and the mainland, to the north; and Cabot Strait, separating Newfoundland from the Nova Scotian peninsula, on the south.