About the Bay

About the Bay

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About the Bay

The Bay of Fundy is a unique and fascinating place to visit not only for its world reknowned natural features but also for its diverse cultural offerings.

The Fundy Forum in the process of putting together this page as a collection of facts, special attractions, and links to showcase what the Bay of Fundy has to offer and provide a glimpse into why we think it is so special.

Please email us if you have anything to add to this page.

The Bay of Fundy, linking New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, is a 270 km northeastern extension of the Gulf of Maine ecosystem. The Bay's 1,300 km coastline ranges from rugged, rocky headlands flanking its mouth to broad mudflats and lush salt marshes at its inner reaches. It has long been of great economic, ecological and scientific importance, largely because of its renowned tides that can exceed 16 metres in height. Twice daily, water equal to the flow of 2,000 St. Lawrence Rivers surges into the Bay. Its funnel shape and gradual shallowing causes a piling up of the inrushing water. Because the Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of Maine form a single basin, the moving seawater also sloshes back and forth like a wave in a giant tub. This aptly named "bathtub effect", being nearly in unison with the Bay's tidal cycle, gives the water the extra push needed forthe world record heights.

For decades engineers and developers have dreamed of harnessing these powerful tidal flows for generating cheap and endlessly renewable electricity. Scientists too have been drawn by these unusual tides, fascinated by the complex relationships between the Bay's surging waters and its diverse ecosystems. They have found that the ceaseless turbulence stirs the waters of the Bay, raising dissolved nutrients from its darkest depth to its sunlit surface. This "upwelling" of life-giving nutrients is particularly marked around Brier Island and Grand Manan, two rocky sentinels near the mouth. This endless abundance of natural fertilizer stimulates the production of tiny marine plants (phytoplankton) and the slightly larger animals (zooplankton) that feed on them. These in turn support large populations of fish, seabirds, whales and seals that congregate in these waters and are the mainstays of long-standing fisheries and rapidly expanding ecotourism in the region. In particular, these productive waters are a critical feeding and nursery area for the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. Generations ago these great leviathans were hunted to near extinction, and even though hunting has long since ceased their numbers continue to decline. Almost half of the 300 animals left spend their summers feeding, raising young and breeding around the mouth of the Bay.

The restless tidal circulation also stirs up the fine sediments eroded from the soft rocks surrounding the upper Bay and over time has shaped them into the productive saltmarshes and seemingly endless mudflats that fringe Minas Basin, Cobequid Bay and other estuaries. The few remnants of these once extensive saltmarshes are home to large numbers of waterfowl and other wildlife. The nearby mudflats are important as critical feeding and resting grounds for millions of shorebirds on their annual migration from the subarctic to the tropics. Large tracts of the upper Bay are now protected areas for shorebirds and waterfowl, thanks to a number of national and international programs designed to conserve critical habitats throughout the birds' ranges.

Large sheltered, coastal embayments near the mouth of Fundy, such as Passamaquoddy Bay, are attractive sites for farming of fish and other marine organisms in large floating cages. The growth of salmon aquaculture in New Brunswick in the past two decades has been explosive. The annual value of its production is fast catching up to that of the traditional fisheries in the Bay. The industry is also expanding in Nova Scotia, and as suitable inshore sites fill up, farms may soon spread into offshore areas.

The Bay of Fundy is clearly a dynamic, highly productive and ecologically diverse coastal ecosystem. It is rich in living resources, and promises continuing economic opportunities for those who dwell on its shores, if they use and manage it wisely.

Source: Fundy Issues #1 - Bay of Fundy Ecosystem Partnership

Origin of Name

According to G.H. Armstrong (1930), author of The Origin and Meaning of Place Names in Canada (Macmillan, Toronto):

"Fundy: bay, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, almost separating Nova Scotia from New Brunswick. The origin of the name is somewhat uncertain. Many writers derive it from French Fond de la Baie, corrupted into Fundy Bay, meaning "head of the bay", as if applied in the first instance to the entrance to the bay. However, this Frence phrase might be translated "deep bay". On Portuguese maps of the 16th century, it is marked Rio Fondo, meaning "deep river", that is, a water extending far inland. Cabot's map of 1544 also has Rio Fondo. The weight of evidence is in favour of this
origin."

It has also been heard that Bay of Fundy is derived from the Portuguese 'Baia Fundo', meaning 'deep bay' or derived from the French 'Baie fendue', meaning 'split bay'.