The Bay of Fundy is a large and deep inlet separating Nova Scotia and New Brunswick with Saint Johns as the major
town and port on its northern shore.
The Mi'kmaq lived and fishes here for ages, well before Europeans showed up in the
early 1500's.
First Europeans to settle were the French who founded Port-Royal in 1605 and started the colony Acadia,
but the English burned the place down in 1613. Violence continued til 1758 when the English finally won and brutally
deported the majority of the Acadians.
Marine life in the Bay is prolific with whales, dolphins and seals feeding and giving
birth here. Below the surface tuna, salmon, herring, shrimps and lobster thrive.
But the main attraction of the Bay of Fundy
are its huge tides, caused by the funnel shape and a lenght that favors tdal resonance.
At the head
of the Minas Basin at the eastern end of the Bay a record tide of almost 22 meters was observed..
The normal tide here
is about 17 meters, enough to be the highest in the world.
The tides create special effects like the Reversing Falls at
the mouth of the St John River and tidal bores of a few meters high in the upper Bay rivers.
The tides in the rivers work
deep inlands and at low tide create huge mudflats with a brownish-red sandstone colour.
Over time the tides have crafted
the Hopewell Rocks at the upper reaches of the Bay, at low tide you can walk on the ocean floor between up to 20 meters high sandstone
rocks.