Mary's Harbour surrounds the St. Mary's River, which was the site of a salmon fishery as early as the 1780s. However, Mary's Harbour was not a permanent settlement until after a fire at Battle Harbour in 1930. The International Grenfell Association decided to relocate its hospital and boarding school, destroyed by the fire, from Battle Harbour to Mary's Harbour. Mary's Harbour has always depended on the fishery for its livelihood. Since the Collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery the community has thrived on the crab fishery. The Labrador Fishermen's Union Shrimp Company employs over 120 people at the local crab processing facility. It is also the gateway to the National Historic District of Battle Harbour.
Climate
Mary's Harbour has a subarctic climate (Koppen: Dfc) with cold winters in spite of its marine position, courtesy of the cold waters of the Labrador Current. Being located on the same latitude around 3,500 km (2,200 mi) from almost frost-free areas of Ireland, the difference between the two Atlantic coastlines is rather extreme. As typical of eastern Canada, Mary's Harbour receives heavy snowfall each winter. Unusually for such a climate, it has a pronounced seasonal lag, especially in the summer, with September averaging warmer than June and October warmer than May. A more typical subarctic climate, like Oymyakon, Russia has a temperature lag of only about 15 days.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Mary's Harbour had a population of 312 living in 121 of its 147 total private dwellings, a change of -8.5% from its 2016 population of 341. With a land area of 34.25 km2 (13.22 sq mi), it had a population density of 9.1/km2 (23.6/sq mi) in 2021.[2]
