<p>In the Northwest Atlantic, demersal spawning of capelin generally occurs when sea surface temperatures reach &gt; 12˚C and become too warm for beach spawning. Demersal spawning has rarely been reported in northern Labrador, where beach spawning events occur less frequently since the past decades. We surveyed Makkovik Bay in August 2018 to document the spawning behaviour of capelin in northern Labrador (55˚N). No beach spawning was reported in the bay in 2018, but using a hull-mounted echosounder and environmental DNA analyses, we detected 30 demersal schools over 8&#xa0;days (1–8 August) in bottom depths ranging from 10 to 29&#xa0;m. Capelin eggs were sampled at one of the schooling sites, on a large flat rock, confirming that at least some of these schools were capelin spawning aggregations. Sea surface temperatures where demersal schools were detected were very close to or above the 12˚C threshold (11.1˚C to 14.2˚C), and bottom temperatures ranged from -0.7˚C to 4.9˚C. Fish density within the confirmed spawning school was 43 ind. m⁻³. The absence of beach spawning in Makkovik Bay in 2018 and the occurrence of demersal spawning suggest that only documenting beach spawning events might result in false negatives when monitoring coastal capelin occurrence and spawning in subarctic and arctic regions.</p>