When the tides come in at the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, ...run.
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!
Stretching about 274 kilometers (170 miles) long and 15 meters (50 feet) wide, the Bay of Fundy has tides that can rise above 15 meters (50 feet) in height. At Minas Basin, the ocean reaches 16 meters (53 feet) high, and the tides increase by about 20 percent during a full moon. Compare that to the average tide of one meter (3 feet). Scientists say that the bay’s natural funnel shape contributes to the extreme tides. Because it becomes narrower and shallower at the end, water is forced higher up onto the shore.
Like all tides, these waters spectacularly climb and drop twice a day. To get the full sense of how high the tides can be, visitors often come for a low and high tide. On average, there’s about six hours and 13 minutes between high and low tides, so visitors can expect to see at least one high and one low tide during daylight hours. The dramatic tides have created a unique shoreline with cliffs and sea stacks. You can safely walk out more than three-quarters of a kilometer (half a mile) in some places.
UNUSUAL INHABITANTS
The ocean has worn away red sandstone and volcanic rock to reveal fossils from over 300 million years ago. Millions of organisms live half the day underwater and the other half revealed. Walking along at low tide, you can find sea glass, shells, starfish, and assorted flotsam. At low tide, fishing boats that were bobbing in the water dockside are sitting on the ground against the wharf. Sometimes, unusually warm temperatures in the water bring exotic, normally tropical fish to the area, such as the mola mola, or ocean sunfish.
The unique tides also cause some other water anomalies, such as tidal bores. These are fronts of water that “bore” their way up a river against the normal river flow. The tides can also create whirlpools. In the Western Passage of the Passamaquoddy Bay toward the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, “Old Sow” spins. It’s the largest whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere and the second largest in the world—second only to the Maelstrom Whirlpool of Norway. It got its name from the distinct sounds that come out of these churning waters.
A favorite Inuit snack is muktuk, a combo of whale skin and blubber.
While the folklore of the Mi’kmaq First Nation tribe attributed the extreme tides to a giant whale splashing in the ocean, the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun really moves about 100 billion tons of seawater in and out of the bay. Because of this massive source of power, one of the three tidal power plants in the world and the only one in North America is located here. The Annapolis Tidal at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy went online in 1984. By harnessing the energy of the tides and converting it into electricity, the plant generates roughly 80 to 100 megawatt hours of electricity, depending on the tides. That’s enough energy to produce more than 30 million kilowatt hours per year and power about 4,500 homes. The energy is fed directly into the Nova Scotia Power Corporation’s utility system.
Capturing this power, however, has been challenging. Nova Scotia Power, which had a turbine test spot on the Bay of Fundy, abandoned further research into tidal energy after powerful currents destroyed a $10 million turbine less than a month after it was set up in November 2009. Other companies are still pursuing the possibility. Tidal energy is part of Nova Scotia’s plan to generate 40 percent of its electricity from renewable resources by 2020.
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DEFYING GRAVITY
There are a few places on Earth that seem to defy gravity, and Magnetic Hill, New Brunswick, is one of them. For years, travelers have been driving their cars to the bottom of the hill, putting them in neutral, and then watching them roll backward back up the hill. The locals have been puzzling over the phenomenon since the 1800s. Farmers with horse-drawn carts would notice how their horses struggled down the hill and how their wagons would almost crash into their horses’ feet as they went up the hill. In reality, there is no supernatural phenomenon at work here—the hill is an optical illusion. The landscape creates a unique perspective where downhill appears to be uphill and vice versa.
Facial creams using snail slime are banned in Canada.