


......In
Micmac lore, it was a giant whale, who angered the god Glooscap
and created such a splash with his mighty tail, that the water
sloshes back and forth to this day.
......In actuality, the story of
the tremendous Bay of Fundy tides is no less the stuff of
legends.
......Some 350 million years ago,
it was not Glooscap, but rather the sun and moon who conspired
to create this awe-inspiring natural phenomenon. That is, some
100 million years before the first dinosaurs roamed the earth,
this pulsing arm of the North Atlantic was formed, its unique
shape amplifying the tides to staggering proportions.
......New Brunswick's Bay of Fundy
is an eco-attraction on par with such marvels as the Great
Barrier Reef of Australia and the Rain Forest of Brazil. It's
mighty tides are the greatest on earth. Every day, twice daily,
one hundred billion tons of seawater roll in and out of the Bay.
At low tide, you can literally walk on the ocean floor. At high
tide, just six hours later, your footprints will be covered by
the ocean. In some places, the vertical difference between high
and low tide is 14 meters- roughly the same height as a four
storey building!
......Fundy's onslaught of water
every 12 hours and 30 minutes is estimated to nearly equal the
24 hour flow of all the rivers in the world! How nutrient-rich
are Fundy's waters? In just two weeks, sandpipers feeding on
Fundy shores will double their weight! Bon appetit!! For many
people , the only whales they ever see are in the movies, or in
large tanks in aquariums. Come to New Brunswick and see them up
close, in their natural habitat! The rich feeding grounds around
the Fundy Isles in southwestern New Brunswick make the Bay of
Fundy one of the world's most accessible sites for viewing
marine mammals. Every summer whales of all sizes ( up to 15
species of toothed and baleen whales) come to the Bay of Fundy,
one of the marine wonders of the world, to mate, play and feast
on the bountiful supply of food churned up twice a day by the
powerful tides. The stirring of deep nutrient-rich water into
shallow surface water causes immense blooms of plankton -
passively floating food that nourishes all marine life. That's
more kinds of whales more often than anywhere else!
|