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The Parks / New Brunswick / Fundy National Park

The Bay of Fundy is like a funnel that stretches 150 km, separating Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. At its head, it splits into two narrow bays, Chignecto Bay and Minas Basin. Approximately 12 km of shoreline are in Fundy National Park. The Bay of Fundy tides are among the highest in the world, rising as much as 16 m at Hopewell Cape, and averaging 9 m in the Park. The tides change twice a day, every six hours and thirteen minutes, powered by the gravitational pulls of the sun and moon and increased by the funnel shape and decreasing depth of the bay. The waters of the Atlantic surge into the narrowing bay, building tide upon tide in a rocking motion called a 'seche'. With each tide, the bay flushes 100 cubic km of water, roughly equal to the entire daily discharge of all the rivers in the world combined.

At low tide, visitors can see fishing boats in the port of Alma sitting on little boxes on the ocean floor. Fishermen must time their departures and returns by the high tides. Low tide provides a wonderful opportunity to explore the ocean floor, but be careful not to wander too far; the incoming tide could cut off your return route, and have you up to your neck in water in less than an hour.