Geography Lesson
18 August 2016 | Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada
Boats "grounding out" at low tide on the Bay of Fundy
If you use your imagination, Nova Scotia looks a bit like a lobster with its front claws stretching northeast and its tail pointing southwest. The claws are Cape Breton. The left claw is larger than the right, and half way up the left claw, for a distance of about 20 miles, the two claws barely touch. Below this point, the claws curve outward and the space between the two claws is Bras d'Or Lake, an inland sea that is 62 miles long and 31 miles wide. A giant arm reaches west from the lobster's shoulder, connecting Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and in that lobster's armpit is the Bay of Fundy.
This description is not written to cast aspersions on the Bay of Fundy or it's nearby inhabitants. It's just that after many years of hearing about the Bay of Fundy, but never really knowing where it was, it's nice to finally get a handle on its location.
As you travel southwest, the Bay of Fundy widens into the Gulf of Maine. The Gulf of Maine borders on the North Atlantic Ocean. The Bay is renown for its productive fishing grounds, large tides (sometimes over 50 feet) and thick fog. It is not a place where we would choose to sail, but we were thrilled to take a driving trip across Nova Scotia with Howard and Donna to be in the place where the world's highest tides occur.
Cheryl Barr in Down East Circle Route cruising guide gives a more elegant description of the Bay of Fundy and its impressive tides stating that the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy form an upside-down funnel-shaped basin that gradually shoals in the north (yes, the armpit), causing the water to "slosh" in the upside-down funnel, gathering height as the land rises and the funnel narrows.
Twice a day 115 billion tons of water goes in and out of the bay. These tides are a major source of renewable energy that is more predictable than wind or solar. Research is being conducted by FORCE (Fundy Ocean Research Center for Energy) on ways to harness this energy using in-stream turbines in ways that would have minimal environmental impact on the region.