Conception Bay is adjacent to the St. John's Metropolitan Area which contains 5 of the 10 largest settlements in the province and is home to over 200,000 people.

In 1501 and 1502, the Corte-Real brothers explored and charted Greenland and what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, claiming these lands as part of the Portuguese Empire.

[4][5] A rather famous story in its day was the following case: in 1873, a fishing boat and Theophilus Picot was in here, it were attacked by a giant squid.

[6] From the late 1890s to the 1960s, Bell Island was home to an iron ore mine in Wabana, operated most recently by the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO).

During World War II, anchored DOSCO cargo ships, along with the loading pier at Wabana, were the target of Nazi U-boats on at least two occasions.

The wrecks of the four cargo ships sunk during these two attacks are visible at low tide; a memorial on shore is dedicated to the 69 merchant sailors who lost their lives.