A tiny fishing community, Shoal Cove East is 6 km northeast of Flower's Cove. The community is chiefly notable for having been the original Newfoundland home to the Caines family, one of the more common family names on the west side of the Great Northern Peninsula.

The community has had a tradition of harvesting wood during the winter and from the late 1920s some residents walked 50km across the Peninsula to work as loggers at Main Brook. After the highway reached Shoal Cove East in 1960, opportunities in the forest industry away from the community increased. Originally, most fishermen of Shoal Cove East were supplied from Flower's Cove, but by 1900 most were dealing with merchant Thomas White, at nearby Sandy Cove. After 1934 there was a small local shop. The community has relied on Flower's Cove and Sandy Cove for other services, such as church and schooling, although it has a tiny Anglican church (St. John the Evangelist). The Straits Development Association has a GNP Craft Producers Museum and retail outlet on the highway behind the community.