Fundy, Bay Of

Fundy, Bay of

Bay of Fundy, inlet of the Atlantic Ocean between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick (north and west) and Nova Scotia (south and east). It extends 94 miles (151 km) inland, is 32 miles (52 km) wide at its entrance, and is noted for its fast-running tides, which may produce rises as great as 70 feet (21 m), the highest in the world. Aside from the spectacular rock formations and forests of its shorelines and the fine agricultural lands created by dikes from its on-land marshes, the bay has come into prominence as a major potential source of hydroelectricity, but one that continues to present great engineering difficulties and other problems of feasibility.

The bay covers some 3,600 square miles (9,300 square km). Its shores are indented by numerous coves and several large deepwater harbours, the main ones at Saint John and St. Andrews in New Brunswick and Digby and Hantsport in Nova Scotia, all harbour towns that burgeoned during the great lumbering, shipping, and shipbuilding activity of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1948 an 80-square-mile section of shore and stream-riven hills in New Brunswick was set aside as Fundy National Park.

Steep bedrock cliffs up to 200 feet (60 m) high bound the bay and channel its waters until they separate into two narrow niches, Chignecto Bay on the north and Minas Basin on the south. In these, the tide range is magnified by the narrowness and shape of the bay, a rise of 46 feet (14 m) being common in Chignecto Bay and 53 feet (16 m) in Minas Basin. When the tide runs out, the channels become veins of red mud, reflecting the erosion of the outcrops of red sandstone and shale along the coast. The rising tide produces a “reversing falls” at the mouth of the Saint John River, and the tidal surge up the Petitcodiac River toward Moncton has a bore, or tidal wave, that is 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 m) high at its crest, with the tide rising a phenomenal 8 to 11 feet (2.5 to 3.5 m) per hour.

Passamaquoddy Bay, astride the Maine–New Brunswick border, over several decades has been the focus of investigations into the feasibility of harnessing its hydroelectric potential through damming or some other means. This bay’s tidal flow is immense—some 70,000,000,000 cubic feet (2,000,000,000 cubic m) entering and leaving on the twice-daily turn of the tide. The tidal-power possibilities of Passamaquoddy, whose tides average an 18-foot rise, were first studied in the 1920s and have been the subject of occasional investigations ever since, but the continuing engineering difficulties and the immense costs involved, along with environmental concerns, have so far impeded any development.