Nova Scotia Tide primer - Bay of Fundy
May 28th, 2005, 11:53 AM
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Nova Scotia Tide primer - Bay of Fundy
For those planning to vacation in Nova Scotia I am making this entry to acquaint you with the unique tides in the Bay of Fundy.
First you should know that I am NOT at all a water/nautical sort of person who would ever pick up a tide table near home for any purpose. I do not sit by the bathtub and marvel at the natural movements of the water there.
Even if you live most of your life as I do, with neither care nor appreciation for the local tides, I cannot stress enough that Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy is different!!!!
The tides in the channel that divides much of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (which is adjacent to Maine, USA) are known to be the highest on earth.
Imagine a place where rivers turn around and go UP STREAM, predictably, a couple of times every day. This is the only area in the world in which you can go white water river rafting - UP river.
The difference between high tide and low tide deep in the Bay of Fundy is jaw-dropping. The first time I saw an ocean-going vessel tied to a dock while the ship sat on the ocean floor at low tide, I was blown away. I could have walked for hundreds of feet out in the sand/ocean floor beyond that big ship, even though six hours later it would all be under deep water.
If you're bringing kids to the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia area for the first time, the tides can offer lots of help and incentive to get their minds working and understanding the natural effects that surround us every day. As is the case everywhere, tides are extremely predictable, but in Nova Scotia the emphasis is still more on "extreme" than on predictable.
The tides are at their most prominent point at times at or just after a full moon (check your calendar for that), and among full moons, the ones in the spring have a little edge over the others.
I think the one single spot in the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia area that might inspire the most awe over the powerful tides is at Hopewell Cape, NB. There you can go down a long stairway at low tide and walk around on the ocean floor next to large chunks of land carved by the tides over hundreds of years. Called "The Flower Pot Rocks", they dwarf the average human so much that the naked eye has to scan a photograph closely just to notice a human form. (google "Flower Pot Rocks" on the "images" tab)
A most telling factor about Hopewell Cape is a bright yellow warning sign at the top of the long stairway that reads:
"Warning: You must be off of this beach by ___(time)___ to avoid being trapped by the incoming tide"
The tides are serious things in this area, and although some people have lost their lives entirely because of their unawareness, the element of extreme predictability of the tides makes frolicking in the surf entirely safe for families of all ages who are aware of the timing.
Someone at this website was kind enough to share a web location where you can get tide table data for the Bay of Fundy.
http://www.lau.chs-shc.dfo-mpo.gc.ca...=5&zone=30
Look at the map on that page and familiarize yourself with a few places:
Hopewell Cape - in the middle, 3/4 of the way up the page
Burntcoat Head - (site of the single highest tide ever recorded on earth, back in the 1800's) on the far right in this picture. The actual tide watching at Burntcoat Head isn't particularly awe inspiring, but just seeing where it is mattered to me.
(FYI Truro, Nova Scotia would be just off the screen at the end of the waterway to the lower right. Truro is about an hour's drive from Halifax)
Moncton, New Brunswick - at the top of the map (a place where you can sit on stadium bleachers, by the riverside, and wait for the "Tidal Bore" twice daily at various, yet extremely predictable times) It is sort of fun to watch, even at night, because you can hear the whirl of the approaching tidal bore before you see it wash past you and reverse the course of the river.
Scots Bay, NS - Not far from the end of the little cape that extends out into the middle of the Bay/Basin. If you drive as far as you can on that cape, you can then take a 2 1/2-hours-each-way hike to the end of "Cape Split", where you're truly surrounded by the world's highest tides.
(at the outer end of that, you'll find yourself on a grassy knoll high above the tides in an area that will most likely be very windy. There is plenty of cover (from the wind) not many feet back from the end)
Between the towns of Scots Bay and Diligent River, in that smallish channel, flows as much water during the course of a day as flows through ALL of the rivers on earth COMBINED in the same 24-hour period.
There are many other spots in the area where you can get a great visual of the effect of the powerful tides, many of which are between Scots Bay and Truro, NS. Just walking out on the beaches hundreds of feet, near low tide, is certainly unique.
Clicking "Burntcoat Head" on the map, and requesting the 7-day tide table beginning June 19, 2005, I find a couple of instances of the spread between high and low tide being 46.9 feet. In your neighborhood, chances are, the spreads from low to high tide are between 1 and 12 feet. Yesterday a man spoke to me rather boastfully about the 13-foot spread in the tides near his home.
One giant problem you may find in Nova Scotia is the idea that you have to occupy six hours of your time between absolute low tide and absolute high tide, so plan for that accordingly.
The time between the two extremes is filled with tidal force, especially during the three hours leading up to high tide. The average human still struggles to occupy him or herself for that long, so perhaps strategic driving can put you back the next day, or in a few hours to note the huge differences.
I expect that a certain percentage of children will really be fascinated by parts if not all of the tidal phenomena in the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia area. Vacations may be made more enjoyable by planning ahead and educating your children about what to expect. The predictability of the tides allows schedules to be built around trips to different spots on the map and you really can see tomorrow what you may have to miss today.
For your information I do not live anywhere near Nova Scotia, but I continue to be in awe of nature's beauty there.
First you should know that I am NOT at all a water/nautical sort of person who would ever pick up a tide table near home for any purpose. I do not sit by the bathtub and marvel at the natural movements of the water there.
Even if you live most of your life as I do, with neither care nor appreciation for the local tides, I cannot stress enough that Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy is different!!!!
The tides in the channel that divides much of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (which is adjacent to Maine, USA) are known to be the highest on earth.
Imagine a place where rivers turn around and go UP STREAM, predictably, a couple of times every day. This is the only area in the world in which you can go white water river rafting - UP river.
The difference between high tide and low tide deep in the Bay of Fundy is jaw-dropping. The first time I saw an ocean-going vessel tied to a dock while the ship sat on the ocean floor at low tide, I was blown away. I could have walked for hundreds of feet out in the sand/ocean floor beyond that big ship, even though six hours later it would all be under deep water.
If you're bringing kids to the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia area for the first time, the tides can offer lots of help and incentive to get their minds working and understanding the natural effects that surround us every day. As is the case everywhere, tides are extremely predictable, but in Nova Scotia the emphasis is still more on "extreme" than on predictable.
The tides are at their most prominent point at times at or just after a full moon (check your calendar for that), and among full moons, the ones in the spring have a little edge over the others.
I think the one single spot in the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia area that might inspire the most awe over the powerful tides is at Hopewell Cape, NB. There you can go down a long stairway at low tide and walk around on the ocean floor next to large chunks of land carved by the tides over hundreds of years. Called "The Flower Pot Rocks", they dwarf the average human so much that the naked eye has to scan a photograph closely just to notice a human form. (google "Flower Pot Rocks" on the "images" tab)
A most telling factor about Hopewell Cape is a bright yellow warning sign at the top of the long stairway that reads:
"Warning: You must be off of this beach by ___(time)___ to avoid being trapped by the incoming tide"
The tides are serious things in this area, and although some people have lost their lives entirely because of their unawareness, the element of extreme predictability of the tides makes frolicking in the surf entirely safe for families of all ages who are aware of the timing.
Someone at this website was kind enough to share a web location where you can get tide table data for the Bay of Fundy.
http://www.lau.chs-shc.dfo-mpo.gc.ca...=5&zone=30
Look at the map on that page and familiarize yourself with a few places:
Hopewell Cape - in the middle, 3/4 of the way up the page
Burntcoat Head - (site of the single highest tide ever recorded on earth, back in the 1800's) on the far right in this picture. The actual tide watching at Burntcoat Head isn't particularly awe inspiring, but just seeing where it is mattered to me.
(FYI Truro, Nova Scotia would be just off the screen at the end of the waterway to the lower right. Truro is about an hour's drive from Halifax)
Moncton, New Brunswick - at the top of the map (a place where you can sit on stadium bleachers, by the riverside, and wait for the "Tidal Bore" twice daily at various, yet extremely predictable times) It is sort of fun to watch, even at night, because you can hear the whirl of the approaching tidal bore before you see it wash past you and reverse the course of the river.
Scots Bay, NS - Not far from the end of the little cape that extends out into the middle of the Bay/Basin. If you drive as far as you can on that cape, you can then take a 2 1/2-hours-each-way hike to the end of "Cape Split", where you're truly surrounded by the world's highest tides.
(at the outer end of that, you'll find yourself on a grassy knoll high above the tides in an area that will most likely be very windy. There is plenty of cover (from the wind) not many feet back from the end)
Between the towns of Scots Bay and Diligent River, in that smallish channel, flows as much water during the course of a day as flows through ALL of the rivers on earth COMBINED in the same 24-hour period.
There are many other spots in the area where you can get a great visual of the effect of the powerful tides, many of which are between Scots Bay and Truro, NS. Just walking out on the beaches hundreds of feet, near low tide, is certainly unique.
Clicking "Burntcoat Head" on the map, and requesting the 7-day tide table beginning June 19, 2005, I find a couple of instances of the spread between high and low tide being 46.9 feet. In your neighborhood, chances are, the spreads from low to high tide are between 1 and 12 feet. Yesterday a man spoke to me rather boastfully about the 13-foot spread in the tides near his home.
One giant problem you may find in Nova Scotia is the idea that you have to occupy six hours of your time between absolute low tide and absolute high tide, so plan for that accordingly.
The time between the two extremes is filled with tidal force, especially during the three hours leading up to high tide. The average human still struggles to occupy him or herself for that long, so perhaps strategic driving can put you back the next day, or in a few hours to note the huge differences.
I expect that a certain percentage of children will really be fascinated by parts if not all of the tidal phenomena in the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia area. Vacations may be made more enjoyable by planning ahead and educating your children about what to expect. The predictability of the tides allows schedules to be built around trips to different spots on the map and you really can see tomorrow what you may have to miss today.
For your information I do not live anywhere near Nova Scotia, but I continue to be in awe of nature's beauty there.
May 28th, 2005, 01:08 PM
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Hello, NorthwestMale! Thank you for the NS Tide Primer. You should write an article on this & send it to The Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper for its weekend Travel Section. And, the Halifax Herald newspaper bc/ I am sure that there are many NS residents who wld love to read about this phenomenon. I grew up in NS where we took the tides for granted . As I look back, I regret that we did not spend more time experiencing this amazing feature of Nova Scotia.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
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