Kécarpoui River

The Kécarpoui River (French: Rivière Kécarpoui) is a salmon river in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It flows south and empties into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

Kécarpoui River Rivière Kécarpoui
La baie de Kécarpoui, 1897
Location
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Côte-Nord
RCM	Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent
Physical characteristics
Mouth	Gulf of Saint Lawrence
• coordinates	51.0619444°N 58.8338889°W
• elevation	0 metres (0 ft)
Length	27 kilometres (17 mi)
Basin size	696 square kilometres (269 sq mi)

Location

The Kécarpoui River is a narrow river, 27 kilometres (17 mi) long.[1] The mouth of the river is in the municipality of Gros-Mécatina in Le Golfe-du-Saint-Laurent Regional County Municipality.[2] The Kécarpoui Archipelago is a group of islands in the Gulf opposite the river mouth. Kécarpoui is an Innu language word meaning "porcupine river".[3]

Description

The Dictionnaire des rivières et lacs de la province de Québec (1914) says of the river,

This river flows across the mountains of the Laurentides and empties into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence about fifteen miles from the Saint-Augustin River. From the high tide mark up to lake Kécarpoui the river is not navigable, even for canoes. According to the surveyor J.C. Giraud (report of 1901) there is no land suitable for cultivation on the sides of this river or the lakes that feed it. The trees are fir and spruce with dimensions of no more than 7 to 8 inches in diameter. Salmon and trout frequent this river. The river is frequented by hunters for game and fur, which they find in quantity. Kécarpoui comes from a montagnais word meaning "where there is ribbon [ruban]".[4]

Basin

The Kécarpoui River basin covers 696 square kilometres (269 sq mi).[5] It lies between the basins of the Véco River to the west and the Saint-Augustin River to the east.[5] It is partly in the unorganized territory of Petit-Mécatina and partly in the municipalities of Gros-Mécatina and Saint-Augustin.[6] The Lac-Robertson Generating Station, which is powered by a dam on the Véco River, is in the Kécarpoui basin.[7]

Environment

A map of the ecological regions of Quebec shows the Kécarpoui River in sub-regions 6o-T, 6n-T and 6m-T of the east spruce/moss subdomain.[8] Vegetation in the basin is dominated by conifers. Mammals include black bear, moose, boreal woodland caribou, wolf, fox, lynx, muskrat, mink, otter and porcupine. There are seabird colonies on the many islands and islets near the river mouth.[1]

Fishing

The Kécarpoui River is recognized as an Atlantic salmon river.[9] The river bed is composed of medium-sized rocks. Salmon swim up the river for 19 kilometres (12 mi). They average 2.2 to 4.8 kilograms (4.9 to 10.6 lb) in weight.[1] In 2013–2017 an average of 7 salmon were reported caught each year.[10] The Pourvoirie Kecarpoui/Kecarpoui Outpost provides outfitting services.[11] They do not have an exclusive right.[1] They offer 6-day guided fishing expeditions that visit the Véco, Kecarpoui, Saint-Augustin, Coxipi, Chécatica, Napetipi rivers and the Baie des roches.[12]

Notes

1. Rivière Kécarpoui, Saumon Québec.
2. Rivière Kécarpoui, Ressources naturelles.
3. Archipel-de-Kécarpoui, Commission.
4. Rouillard 1914, p. 77.
5. Bourdon et al. 2015, p. 20.
6. Bourdon et al. 2015, p. 64.
7. Lac-Robertson, Seuil aval du.
8. Saucier et al. 2011.
9. Liste des rivières à saumon.
10. Bilan de l’exploitation du saumon au Québec en 2018, p. 221.
11. Bourdon et al. 2015, p. 88.
12. Pourvoirie Kecarpoui, Pourvoirie Kecarpoui.

Sources

• Archipel-de-Kécarpoui (in French), Commission de toponymie du Québec, retrieved 2019-10-17
• Bilan de l’exploitation du saumon au Québec en 2018 (PDF) (in French), Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs, May 2019, retrieved 2019-10-17
• Bourdon, Philippe; Ibrahim, Ghassen; Luce, Myriam; NantobBikatui, N'Binkéna; Othoniel, Clara; Tremblay, Yohann (April 2015), Portrait préliminaire de la zone de gestion intégrée de l'eau par bassin versant (PDF) (in French), OBV Duplessis, retrieved 2019-09-24
• Lac-Robertson, Seuil aval du (in French), Ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, retrieved 2019-10-17
• Liste des rivières à saumon (PDF) (in French), Quebec government, retrieved 2019-10-11
• Pourvoirie Kecarpoui (in French), Pourvoirie Kecarpoui, retrieved 2019-10-17
• Rivière Kécarpoui (in French), Ressources naturelles Canada, retrieved 2019-10-16
• Rouillard, Eugène (1914), "Kécarpoui , (Rivière)", Dictionnaire des rivières et lacs de la province de Québec (in French), Québec. Département des terres et forêts
• Rivière Kécarpoui (in French), Saumon Québec, retrieved 2019-10-17
• Saucier, J.-P.; Robitaille, A.; Grondin, P.; Bergeron, J.-F.; Gosselin, J. (2011), Les régions écologiques du Québec méridional (PDF) (map), 4 (in French), Ministère des Ressources naturelles et de la Faune, retrieved 2019-09-26