tides in Bay of Fundy

Paul Brubacher

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outside of Toronto, Ont
While looking at the location of Peter's birthday getaway, I noticed that it was almost at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. I'm sure that everyone has heard that the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides.
Questions;
Where do the high tides start?
How long is the transition from normal tides to the highest tides?
 
Carol has provided a definitive source there, so I'll just add my 2 cents.
The Fundy tides occur all along the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shores of the bay, but reach their highest in the upper extremities, due to the funnelling effect of the narrowing channels. I believe the highest recorded tide is at Burntcoat Head, over 40 feet of difference between high and low during the spring and fall "spring tide" periods. The cycle is quite regular and is about 12 and 1/2 hours.
The volume of water flowing in and out of the bay during the cycle is estimated to equal the flow of all the rivers on Earth. There's some exciting research going on near Parrsboro NS where the Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy (FORCE) is operating an experimental tidal power turbine in the Minas Passage, where the tidal current reaches 16 knots. When they figure that out, our renewable energy worries will be over!
 
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Thanks Carol, that tide table is quite complex. I couldn't find the location of the Fundy (offshore 1). The map just showed a bright blue dot on a pale blue background. No landmarks whatsoever.

What I had been wondering is how the tides at St Andrews on the Sea compare with the highest tides.

We vacationed one year on Grand Manan Island and found one harbour where the water level was 4 or 6 hours behind that on the bay. The boats had to time there arrival and departure vey carefully.

Mind you the same thing happens at Alma New Brunswick where the fishing boats can only come in on high tide. If they want to stay at the wharf they have to prop up the boats to keep them updright during low tide.
 
Dave Halls harbor has a nice LOBSTAH joint had a good meal there with Peter some time back. Lovely view of the bay from there.

Thought some of you might find it interesting to see the images of the turbine being deployed in the Minas Passage talk about scale up this is 2 Mega Watt thats 2 000 000 watts for those that are not metric inclined.
See images here
and here this image is able to be clicked on to get a serious look at the turbine.

If you wish to see web cams of the tide check out these

http://www.novascotiawebcams.com/en/webcams/windsor-salt-marsh/


There is a number you can look at Halls Harbor is among them is you scroll around the above site.

This is a link about the location of the first test site for the turbine and info about the organization doing the testing
http://fundyforce.ca/about/force-test-site/

Enjoy
 
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Dave Halls harbor has a nice LOBSTAH joint had a good meal there with Peter some time back. Lovely view of the bay from there.

So it is, but in the True North strong and Free, that's Halls HarboUr to you. :p We went to the Bay of Fundy about 20 years ago with the kids. It was something to be in the harbour in the morning, with the boats tied up unloading lobster, then we came back in the afternoon and saw the boats resting on their cradles on the bottom of the harbour. We walked about a quarter mile out into what had been sea in the morning. We also went to see the well-named tidal bore, where the tide causes the river to reverse direction. We ate a lot of lobster and fish on that trip.

Nova Scotia is lovely, though, and oit would be worth a trip back there. We also went to Prince Edward Island, a province with a smaller population than the city I live in, back when you could only get there by ferry. There is now a very long bridge and tunnel to the island, but ferries still operate on some routes. They used to be free from the mainland to the Island, but they made you pay to get back.
 
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