East Coast iceberg watch tops 1,000 as season ends

It was the year of the celebrity iceberg, the phallic iceberg and the lying-dog iceberg.

More than a thousand icebergs drifted into East Coast shipping lanes this year, with many more closer to shore in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The arrival of September signals the end of iceberg season, which wasn’t the biggest on record but may have been the most-watched thanks to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Social media has proven a perfect vehicle for the proliferation of iceberg selfies and spectacular shots of icebergs dwarfing homes in seaside villages. Capt. Bob Currie, who runs Discovery Sea Adventures, a whale-watching business in Bonavista, N.L., said tourists are now more interested in icebergs than whales.

“I found this year that icebergs were more popular than whale season - I’m still getting calls from people looking to see if there are icebergs here,” Currie said. “A lot of interest in icebergs people really love to see them.” Gabrielle McGrath, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol, told The Canadian Press this week they have counted 1,004 icebergs in the shipping lanes this year, but few more are expected.

She said 2017 is so far the 19th most severe season on record, with data going back to 1900.

“Those numbers do not include icebergs off of the Newfoundland coast. This number only captures the ones that actually drifted into the shipping lanes, not all of those that were detected or tracked,” she said in an email.

The International Ice Patrol was formed after an iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912. It works with Canadian partners to track conditions, including using surveillance flights, and update mariners.