New Year's tradition....drop a sardine!

Most of the time I'd rather eat Bay of Fundy sardines than drop them but if you're looking for a very bay way to ring in the new year consider the annual sardine drop in Eastport, Maine.

An 8-foot to scale model of the Atlantic Herring will be lowered from the third story window of the Tides Institute and Museum of Art at midnight Eastern Time. Also, a 'Maple Leaf' will be lowered at midnight Atlantic Time, (or 11:00 pm eastern), as Eastport is just west of the Atlantic time zone with the Canadian islands of Deer and Campobello located just off shore in Passamaquoddy Bay. Last year a crowd of more than 300 revelers came to celebrate--twice!

Sculptor, Bill Schaefer, of East Machias, created the fish, which has a bent wood frame and is stretched with canvas. To offer a more authentic rendition, he painted the sardine in a 'contemporary realism' style to look like it was caught fresh from the Atlantic.

For more info on the Sardine and Maple Leaf Drop, visit the Tides Institute and Museum of Art web site.

Here comes Christmas dinner!

Went down to the beach this afternoon to find our Christmas lobster dinner all lined up and ready to cook. Look closely to see them 'crawling' out of the Bay of Fundy and into the pot!

Lots of Fundy folk choose lobster over turkey for the big event. Wishing you were here...

The Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas on the Bay of Fundy without the annual tree hunt. No city parking lots with strings of lights for us, no sirreee. It's the real thing here around the bay....tromping through the woods, in any kind of weather (storm is best!), searching for the perfect 'real' tree. Admittedly, this escapade is somewhat more civilized than it was when I was a kid. Way back then we'd go to my grandfather's farm, wade into the forest, climb the highest tree, lob off the top 10 feet, drag home the crown, drill a few holes into which we'd plug a few spare limbs (to fill in the bare spots) and heartily congratulate ourselves for knowing the difference between fir and spruce!

Nowadays around the Bay of Fundy, rural tree farms or U-Cuts (like summer strawberry U-picks but for Christmas trees) provide accessible but still magical means for Christmas tree hunting. At our nearby Tree Farm, Ram's Head, it's a relaxed, kinda self-serve deal - the good old honor system. In recent years my teenage kids hem and haw a bit about this task so it makes me grin when they end up wrestling for the best burrowing spot beneath the cut tree on the back of the truck.

For previous Christmas posts, see Christmas With The Captain and Oranges For Christmas.

CBC's Land & Sea features Bay of Fundy!

Well, I rarely make two blog posts with video content in a row but I just couldn't resist sharing this preview video of this Sunday's episode of CBC TV's Land & Sea. It's feature all about our beautiful Bay of Fundy and it airs nationally at noon on Nov 21.

There are some REALLY AWESOME transitions from high to low tide in this piece...even if you live here...this episode will make you fall in love with our Bay all over again!!

Click here for more info on Land & Sea's webpage

Many thanks to CBC Halifax for sharing this clip!

Bay of Fundy Travel Show ~ Fundy Ferry episode!

Although the Bay of Fundy is horseshoe-shaped lots of visitors and locals make a loop of it by taking the "Fundy ferry". It's a year-round 3-hr sailing between Digby, Nova Scotia, and Saint John, New Brunswick. Here's a sampling of the trip on our latest episode of the Bay of Fundy Travel Show.

Humpback whale beats long distance record

Marine biologists are reporting that a humpback whale has broken the world record for travel by any mammal, swimming at least 9,800 kilometres (6,125 miles) from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean in search of a mate. That's a heck of a trip when you consider that humpbacks swim at a rate of 1-5 miles per hour!

This female humpback was first photographed among a group of whales at a breeding ground off the Southeast coast of Brazil in August 1999.

By sheer chance, it was photographed again in September 2001 by a commercial whale-watching tour at a breeding ground near the Ile Sainte Marie off the east coast of Madagascar.

The whale was identified by its distinctive tail shape and its pattern of spots.

Not only is the distance of her commute of interest but until now, it was thought that only males, rather than females, would be inclined to wander such extreme distances in quest of a partner.

Humpbacks are known to be long-distance swimmers, but until now their migration patterns were thought to be between northern and southerly latitudes. (i.e. from Bay of Fundy to Caribbean)

Source: Biology Letters, published by Britain's Royal Society.

New tide time lapse video

Sometimes our visitors don't realize that it takes 6 hrs and 13 minutes for the Bay of Fundy's tides to go from high to low then from low to high. If visitors aren't able to stay to see the change from high to low that's where the magic of videography comes in handy.

Such as this time lapse videos like this one of Hopewell Rocks recently produced by my friend Kevin, who is an interpreter at "The Rocks".

Watch & be amazed!!

Upper Fundy land restored to saltmarsh

Anyone living in upper Bay of Fundy is quite aware that large tracts of our coastal land are currently protected from tidal inundation by dykes. The original dykes were built by Acadian settlers over 350 years ago to convert salt water marshes to farm land.

Although these converted salt water marshes or "dykelands" remain some of the region's most fertile agricultural land, much of it today is underutilized: 15% of dykeland in Nova Scotia and 41% of dykeland in New Brunswick is no longer being farmed.

It's estimated that 85% of the saltmarshes in the Bay of Fundy were lost due to dyking. With the pressures of climate change and rising sea levels, there certainly appears to be case to be made returning some of these unused dykelands to the Bay as salt marshes.

Ducks Unlimited launched an interesting project this week in upper Bay of Fundy: it intentionally returned 16 hectares of farmland to saltmarsh and will closely monitor how the restored saltmarsh can act as a buffer to rising sea levels and storm surges. It's also expected that salt marshes may ease the pressure on remaining dykes. 'Twill be interesting to watch...

People sunning on the ocean floor

With all this crazy tide stuff we see some funny sights in these parts: here's a photo I took of some folks sitting out on the ocean floor sunning themselves at low tide at Blomidon Provincial Park, near Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

Just another ho-hum day on a Bay of Fundy beach where, in 6 hours, they'd be covered by about 30 feet of water....

North America's 1st UNESCO Geopark announced for Fundy!

Big news on the geology front in a section of our Bay in New Brunswick: officials with the Global Geoparks Network, a UNESCO program, announced during their annual conference in Greece last week that Bay of Fundy's Stonehammer Geopark will join 76 other parks in 23 countries across the globe!

A geopark is an area that showcases geological features of global importance. UNESCO created the designation program to protect and enhance the value of old landscapes, while educating people about what lies beneath their feet.

The Stonehammer Geopark encompasses 2,500 square kilometres of land, stretching from Lepreau Falls to Norton. Sites within the Geopark include Rockwood Park, Dominion Park, the Hampton Lighthouse River Centre and the Fundy Trail, among others.

One of the really great places to see some of Stonehammer's geological scope is right above Reversing Rapids in Saint John: there's one set of rocks about 500 million years old right beside other rock about a billion years old. See this in our Bay of Fundy Travel Show episode for Reversing Falls.

Congratulations to everyone involved with Stonehammer's designation. Here's hoping that the new it means more interpretation & more opportunities to discover the Bay of Fundy's fascinating geology. Click here to join Stonehammer Geopark's facebook fan page

Bay of Fundy book launch tomorrow!

There's a very exciting event taking place tomorrow, October 2, in Albert County, New Brunswick: the launch of a biography of well-known Bay of Fundy naturalist, Mary Majka.

Mary is one of Canada’s great pioneering environmentalists. She is best known as a television host, a conservationist, and a driving force behind the internationally acclaimed Mary’s Point Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve on the Bay of Fundy.

Sanctuary (her authorized biography to be released this weekend) gives full expression to the intensely personal story of Mary’s life. A daughter of privilege, a survivor of World War II Poland, an architect of dreams, Mary Majka became passionately intent on protecting fragile spaces and species for generations to come.

In this amazing chronicle of determination and foresight, Deborah Carr reveals a complex, indomitable, thoroughly human being — flawed yet feisty, inspiring and inspired. With information gleaned from Mary’s own memories, present day scenes and passages of reportage, Sanctuary engages the reader in a shared remembering as Deborah weaves together the story of a young Polish girl named Marysia, who faced sorrow, loss and then war alone, and through this discovered a healing connection to nature. It is the story of how she evolved into the award-winning woman known as Mary Majka, who played a key role in preserving the natural and cultural heritage of New Brunswick and encouraged others to pursue their passion and make their own mark on the world.

But beneath all this, it is the story of finding sanctuary – of achieving that sacred place of acceptance and refuge, both in the world and within the soul.

The book launch for Sanctuary takes place Oct 2, from 2PM – 4PM at the Harvey Hall, 29 Mary’s Point Road, Harvey, Albert Co. (Near Riverside-Albert), NB. Both the author and Mary Majka will be there to sign books.

To read more about the story behind the writing of Sanctuary, visit author, Deborah Carr’s blog, What If?

Big tides & big pumpkins!

Not only does the Bay of Fundy boast the highest tides in the world but we also have another worldwide claim to fame: the world's biggest pumpkins! Windsor, Nova Scotia, resident Howard Dill is a four-time Guinness Book of Records record holder and developer of Dill's Giant Pumpkin seeds. Mr Dill is credited with launching the international craze of growing giant pumpkins.

One of the best uses of these giant pumpkins takes place during the annual Windsor-West Hants Pumpkin Regatta....yes i said regatta...the giant pumpkins are cored, decorated and paddled across a lake in downtown Windsor. The event draws about 10,000 spectators and hundreds of participants. It takes place in downtown Windsor on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend, check here for more info on this year's race.

Watch our Bay of Fundy Travel Show episode of the Pumpkin Regatta:

Living on a postcard

There are spendid days during my travels around our region when the light is just right, when the perspective is perfect, when it feels like I'm living on a Bay of Fundy postcard. Today was one of those awesome days.

For locals on Campobello Island this is the every-day ho-hum view of their famed East Quoddy Light (a.k.a. Head Harbour Lightstation). It's quite possibly the most photographed lighthouse in the Bay of Fundy: visible from the island as well as from the ocean during trips with whale watch companies (which is when I took this photo).

I'm on Campobello Island for a few days filming one of our Bay of Fundy Travel Show episodes
and, if my first few hours here are any indication, there will be many more picture-postcard moments....!

New7Wonders of Nature - Bay of Fundy finalist

It's been a couple of months since I updated our readers on the Bay of Fundy's plight to become one of the New7Wonders of Nature. We're so thrilled to be representing Canada in this global campaign. The campaign recently got a wonderful national boost from our two 'Fundy premiers' from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

They did a great plug for Bay of Fundy at the national premiers' meeting! thanks fellas....

Here, for your interest, is the 'why vote Fundy' epically lovely video that they showed at the event. Just in case you weren't already wowed by our beautiful bay!

Biggest tides of the year today!

Unless you live on the Bay of Fundy you may not be aware that tide heights vary every day. A typical tide chart such as this Dept of Fisheries & Oceans one shows both the time of high and low tide and the height of both high and low tide.

There are many factors that influence tides, in general, and tide height, in particular. Of uppermost importance to tide height is the cycle of the moon, and secondarily, the location of the sun. This is why the new moon & full moon tides are the highest each month: these are called Spring tides (they don't have anything to do with Spring, the season).

Every so often (about every year & a half or more) we also get a rare, unusually high Proxigean Spring tide. This very high tide occurs when the moon is both unusually close to the Earth (at its closest perigee, called the proxigee) and in the new moon phase (when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth).

Read more about the science of the tides...

Today is the day for the Proxigean tides in Bay of Fundy. Here is the Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, wharf & lighthouse at low tide this morning and high tide this afternoon.

Expecting a visit from Hurricane Earl

Living on the edge of the Atlantic ocean it's not uncommon for our region to pick up the odd 'leftover' storm or hurricane from our neighbours to the south.

The Canadian Hurricane Centre keeps a close eye on such weather systems and we're told that Hurricane Earl is spinning up the coast ready to pay us a visit tomorrow morning.

Luckily, although the tide is forecast high around 9:30, these are the lower tides of the month so we shouldn't have to worry about tidal surges. Still, we're still a few weeks away from harvest time so our fruit trees are heavily laden with apples, pears, wine grapes, etc....could be interesting!

Leaf change expected to be BEST!

By all accounts - from the folks who know how to predict such activities - the annual autumn leaf change here in the region this Fall is supposed to be one of the most vibrant ever! David Phillips, a senior climatologist with Environment Canada says the upcoming season promises to be one of the best ever.

The preponderance of hardwood trees and Fundy's humid weather pretty much guarantee that we'll be in for a bright season of gold, orange and red leaves. During my dog walk today I saw these leaves, already starting to change....seems a few weeks early!!

Cliff-jumping on Bay of Fundy!

Although there are many ways for visitors to get to know our Bay, I'm always a big proponent of reaching out to touch the Bay of Fundy by kayaking it, walking its low tide beaches, or even hanging off the edge of its cliffs. This week I spend the day at Cape Enrage on the New Brunswick side of the bay filming the next episode of our Bay of Fundy Travel Show for YouTube.

Cape Enrage is a fun cliffside spot about one hour south of Moncton (half way between the famous Hopewell Rocks and Fundy National Park). The site consists of a heritage lighthouse, lightkeeper's cafe, beach full of huge tree trunk fossils and a long, broad rappelling cliff.

I 'had to' rappell down the cliff-face 6 times (see little blue me on the cliff in the pic) to get all the shots I needed. Even if you don't think heights are you thing, I encourage you to give it a try. It's only 140 feet high and it's extremely well organized and monitored. Oh, and it's a lot like eating chips: once you start you'll want more!!

I'll post the Cape Enrage episode here once its edits are complete! in the meantime, feel free to pop over to our youtube.com/fundybay channel to watch our first 11 episodes.

Our Bay on CNN

Just a quick footnote to my last post: that CBC segment about Bay of Fundy in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign made it also to CNN's website....check it out!

Celebrity guest visits Bay of Fundy!

Yesterday I was pleased to welcome a celebrity guest to the upper Bay of Fundy: world-renowned curler and television personality, Colleen Jones. Colleen is a reporter with CBC TV and was accompanied on her visit by cameraman Brian.

They're producing a feature on the Bay of Fundy's candidacy in the New7Wonders of Nature campaign. Colleen was smitten with this part of the Five Islands (Nova Scotia) are of the Fundy coast and spent several hours exploring by boat (at high tide) and on foot (at low tide - pictured here).

Here are a few images (used with permission) of the crew walking the ocean floor at Five Islands Provincial Park with Sue, a park interpreter. At least we didn't have to worry about Colleen walking on the slick Fundy mud - she's quite accustomed to slippery ice surfaces!

The feature is set to air on CBC TV Newsnow repeatedly through the day on Monday (starting at 7 am) as well as during the main evening news on Monday...in case you'd like to tune in!

Amazing whale watch photo!

As I noted it my last blog post it's truly been an amazing year for whale watching in Bay of Fundy. Whale watching is a great outdoor adventure activity for all ages. Here in Bay of Fundy, we've got some strict guidelines for our whale watch companies about what they can and cannot do around whales. Good thing for telephoto lenses then!

The folks at Quoddy Link Marine whale watching in St Andrews, New Brunswick, sent along this amazing photo and note yesterday:

Here's a picture taken by one of our Marine Biologist guides: we were so blown away by this! It is a lunge-feeding Finback whale, and, if you look closely, you can see 2 seagulls in its mouth. We certainly hope the seagulls survived (the whale would not be able to eat them as Finbacks are baleen whales and you can see the baleen hanging from the whale’s upper jaw). See more photos and read more about this sighting on our blog.

Here's a bit more info about baleen from Wikipedia: baleen is a filtering structure in the mouth of most whales, which they use to feed by sieving small animals from large mouthfuls of seawater. Instead of teeth, these whales have rows of baleen plates in the upper jaw–flat, flexible plates with frayed edges, arranged in two parallel rows, looking like combs with thick hair at the end of each comb tooth. Baleen is not in fact composed of bone, but of the protein keratin, the same substance as hair, horn, scales, claws and nails. Baleen whales use these combs for filter feeding.

Really....we all should go whale watching!

Busy days these days for me around the Bay of Fundy. On sunny days I've been out filming 10 more episodes of our Bay of Fundy Travel Show for our YouTube channel and on rainy days I'm in the office. Regardless of how you spend your days it's hard not to be envious of our whale watch tour operators around the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Sample these recent posts & see if you feel the same way!!

"What a weekend! Fin whales, minkes and humpbacks and beautiful sunny skies! The humpbacks have been realy curious and made close approaches to the boat on two trips. Today one was literally beside the vessel."

"What a couple of great days! LUNGE feeding like rarely seen (i.e. amt of it). Yesterday some great breaches and I knew it/they were coming...so I gave the guests some warning & there were great photos taken."

"We had another VERY successful whale watching trip this afternoon. Flash and her calf were sighted today along with another humpback named Churchill. The calf once again played around the boat- sometimes it makes you wonder who's watching who?!?!"

"Had a rollicking good time today. Wind waves and whales. Yeah a bit of fog as well. 2 trips out and all were satisfied."

"The mom and calf fin whale we have been seeing are still hanging around off the entrance to Head Harbour.The other day the calf was barrel rolling quite a bit, here you can see mom surfacing and the calf has his or her tail half out of the water."

Click here for listings for our whale watch tour operators in the Digby Neck & Islands area of Nova Scotia and the Saint Andrews & Grand Manan Islands of New Brunswick.

New Fundy fish co-op!

Last year I blogged about low lobster demand putting such downward pressure on lobster prices that fishers were in danger of spending more to catch them than they could sell them for. This resulted in quite a few lobster fishers selling their wares fresh & direct to consumers out of the backs of their trucks in various cities in the region.

I don't know if that initiative influenced this recent one but there's just been a CSF (Community Supported Fishery) Co-op created for Bay of Fundy! how lovely....here's the scoop!

This summer "Off The Hook" CSF is connecting a co-operative of small-scale, groundfish bottom hook & line fishermen from the Bay of Fundy to subscribing customers in the Halifax area. Subscribers pay in summer for weekly shares of the co-op's catch of fresh whole haddock, hake and pollock.

CSFs provide several benefits to small-scale fishers, such as more family income, more market choices, and increased ownership and control of their livelihood. Since there are no 'middlemen' involved, fishermen can get a fair price for their catch. Subscribers benefit through increased access to the freshest local, traceable, high quality fish along with renewed connections with local fishing communities and the ocean that sustains us all.

Read more about this creative initiative on Off the Hook's website and take a look at the feature feature coverage on the CBC National News the other night.

Thanks to Becky Cliche-Shanahan for permission to use these photos of the CSF folks in action!

Fundy Whale Car sightings

View Fundy Whale Car Adventures in a larger map Folks who visit our bay are often quite keen to claim they've sighted a whale during their holiday. Well now, with a bit of a watchful eye, they may also be able to claim 'whale CAR sightings' too....we've been having fun introducing our new Whale Car to many people around Bay of Fundy.

I've snapped photos wherever the Whale Car has been since it's June 5 launch so we have an ever-growing collection of quirky 'sightings' to share. Here's the Google Map we've created (which is also embeded on the Whale Car's website).

If you happen to see the Whale Car yourself & you take a pic, please feel free to email it to me (bayoffundy@gmail.com) so I can put it on the map or post it yourself to the car's facebook page!

Cruising across the Bay of Fundy

I'm Pisces so that may explain why I'm always keen to get near, in and on the water!

This week I had the perfect chance to be on the water: we hosted some travel writers aboard the Fundy Ferry that traverses the mouth of the Bay of Fundy from Saint John, New Brunswick, to Digby, Nova Scotia. The trip is only 3 hours and enables folks to make a loop around the Bay in both provinces without backtracking.

I love this ship, the Princess of Acadia...it's one of those nice solid, clean & bright ferries with plenty of viewing decks fore and aft (as well as Starbucks coffee & internet on board). Here's a view off the bow as we were about to dock in Digby. I spent 6 hours aboard this week, going from Digby to Saint John and back.

The other image is Rose from the New Brunswick Museum doing their on-board interpretive program during the daily cruises: the theme is Bay of Fundy, of course!

Test tidal turbine takes a beating

Having the highest tides in the world also means having the strongest tides ~ and that's what captivates those dreaming of harnassing tidal energy from the Bay of Fundy.

Tidal turbine testing started last November with the installation of the first of three different in-stream technologies. The test site is just a few kilometres from my daily dog walking route on the shores so I've been keeping a close eye on the project. Ultimately, as part of this testing phase there will be three turbines installed.

The Bay is quite intense in that location: the narrowest passage of a bay where 100 billion tonnes of seawater is passing with each 2x daily tide cycle and the news came this week that the 1st turbine lost a couple blades and will need to be removed from the Bay for further testing.

Whale car revealed!

At long last our Bay of Fundy whale car is now revealed!

Here are a couple photos from its weekend adventures and there are plenty more photos on our Facebook page.

We're holding a contest to name her or him on our facebook fan page - send us your best & brightest names....

The winner (has to be a resident of New Brunswick or Nova Scotia - sorry Alberta!) wins a 'guest appearance' of the whale car at the event of his or her choice this summer.

Whales, beetles and strange Fundy-themed dreams

Once, after reading that the heart of a Blue Whale is the size of a VW Beetle, I had a dream that my Volkswagen beetle morphed into a whale....and then I thought 'why not', let's do it!

The Fundy Whale Car launches this Saturday, June 5, in Saint John, New Brunswick, at the Fundy Food Fest. It seemed only fitting that the whale car's 1st trip would be to sample fabulous Fundy cuisine!

There's going to be some fun curbside contesting with the Fundy Whale Car throughout the season, so watch for it in its travels throughout Nova Scotia & New Brunswick. Check out the car's website and join its facebook fan page for updates!

Odysseus & the Bay of Fundy connection?

As you can tell from the "art" tab here on my blog, the Bay of Fundy inspires a great deal of creativity. However, even I was surprised to learn recently that there has been a relatively credible connection made between the Bay and the writings of Homer....

George Fowler (retired Engineer with the Bedford Institute of Oceanography and classics buff) speculates that the seafaring Odysseus, hero of Homer's Odyssey, included the Bay of Fundy in his epic journey!

It's an interesting theory which Fowler describes using Fundy's tides and currents, as well as star patterns at the time. Odysseus (Ulysses in Latin) was sailing around modern Greece from the Aegean Sea to the Ionian Sea and got blown off course. Some think there was a chance that he was swept south to the Caribbean then up the Gulf stream to the Bay of Fundy on the Atlantic coast.

Read more in this feature article in the Toronto Star.

Who-pulled-the-plug?

When we 'talk tides' here on the world's biggest tide bay that conversation can veer in several directions. Depending on where you live in the Bay of Fundy the tides reveal their effects in different ways: whirlpools, sideways currents, bores, tidal rapids, vast expanses of exposed beach, etc.

One of my all time favourite tidal effects is the drained-looks-like-the-plug-has-been-pulled-from-the-sink effect evident in several communities around the Bay in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

This particular photo is of the Parrsboro, NS, harbour about 2 hrs after high tide. At this point in the tide cycle the tide is already over 1 mile from the downtown and has just dropped away from the wharf. By the time it gets to low tide in 4 more hours, it will end up another mile or so behind that lighthouse. And to think, this happens 2x day, every day of the year!

Beluga whale "guest" spotted again in Bay of Fundy

It seems that the beluga whale that found its way mysteriously into the Bay of Fundy two years ago is still hanging around.

Regular readers of my blog in 2008 may remember my post about "Q", a juvenile beluga who was 'in love' with a bell buoy and living off the coast of Cape Chignecto on the Nova Scotia side of the bay.

Although about 15 species of whales live in the Bay of Fundy from April through November, this sighting was unusual because: a) it was in the upper bay (our whales all live at the mouth of the bay), b) it was a beluga - a whale that normally lives in the Gulf of St Lawrence, several hundred miles from Fundy, c) it was traveling solo (without its normal pod).

It appears that "Q" has re-surfaced off the coast of St Martins, New Brunswick, about 30 km across the from its 2008 location at Cape Chignecto. Don't get too excited about thoughts of going whale watching though: it's well out into the bay and won't be able to be seen from shore. Besides, this whale is more likely to return to its original habitat the less it has contact with people.

Virtual whale watching

The whale watching season in Bay of Fundy will soon begin and continues through October.

While visiting the Saltscapes Expo this weekend visitors to the Nova Scotia exhibit got a preview of the season to come. I got really lucky and picked this one up by its tail!

P.S. no whales were harmed during the making of this blog post....

Zip-lining in Moncton?

Alright it may be a bit early to go zip-lining here in the Bay of Fundy but I got a kick out of trying a demo-line at the annual Saltscapes Expo this weekend in Halifax. Tourism New Brunswick partnered with the folks at TreeGo in Moncton to create a bit of fun for this event.

Here i am enjoying a taste of what's to come this summer. Check out videos of all TreeGo adventures on their website.

Moose sightings guaranteed in Bay of Fundy?

Probably one of the most common questions - other than tide questions = that we tourism folk hear from prospective visitors to our Bay is:"Where can I go to see a moose?". True, the Bay of Fundy is largely surrounded by forest but it's not like we've got moose roaming around in predictable locations every day.

Over the years I've seen moose in just about every region of the Bay in both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia during my travels (including in my driveway, but that's another story) but they are tricky to summon at will.

I was amused, then, to see this fine moose statue 'uptown' in the Fundy city of Saint John, New Brunswick, this week. It's pretty much life-sized (large enough to make a serious wreck of your car!) and it's at least a photo opp that we can guarantee during Bay of Fundy holiday visits!

New7Wonders special guest visits Bay of Fundy!

It's been a very exciting week here on Canada's Bay of Fundy: we're hosting a special guest from the New7Wonders Foundation in Switzerland! As many of my regular readers will know, the Bay of Fundy is now representing Canada in the global campaign to declare the New7Wonders of Nature.

The winners will be decided by popular vote with the announcement on 11.11.11.

New7Wonders Director, Jean-Paul de la Fuente is here for a few day of meetings to discuss the opportunities for Bay of Fundy on the worldwide stage now that we are one of 28 international finalists, but we can't resist showing off a couple of well-known Fundy locations.

Pictured here is our VoteFundy for Canada flag raising on the low tide ocean floor yesterday at Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick.

If you'd like to support Canada's Bay of Fundy in the campaign, you can VOTE HERE and join our Bay of Fundy for New7Wonders facebook group!

This gal LOVES the Bay of Fundy

I love hearing from blog readers who send photos and 'guest posts' - it's kind of like having eyes all around the Bay. After my last post about Bay of Fundy break-ups it seems only fitting to post this happy photo from my friend Maegan.

Here's how she describes it:

hi Terri - here are some fun and silly photos I took last night at Port George on the Bay of Fundy… I was attempting to spell “love” with my body. These photos are taken by my husband Aaron Noble, and are not photoshopped: this is the real, and amazing light from the Bay of Fundy. The photos were taken at Cottage Cove picnic park in Nova Scotia where we had a picnic with local fish and chips!

Many thanks to Maegan & Aaron who live in the section of Bay of Fundy designated by UNESCO as the South West Nova Biosphere Reserve - check out the Biosphere website and facebook page for info and other neat images.

Coastal break-up Fundy style!

No I'm not talking about relationship breakups (tho' with the amount of coast we have, no doubt some of those have happened on our beaches too!). Rather, here's an interesting guest post from my fellow blogger, Ryan (Annapolis Royal Heritage blog).

Hey Terri, knowing you're fascinated by unusual sights on our coast, so I thought you'd be interested in this excerpt from a recent series of blog posts about a scallop dragger that ran aground and beached at Parker's Cove last week.

After attempts to get the scallop dragger "Patpa's Boys" floating again were unsuccessful, a decision was apparently made that the boat should be broken up. This is, of course, the safe thing to do since there is no need for someone to accidentally get injured crawling around on the disabled boat. There is also no need to add to the already abundant flotsam which floats about the Bay of Fundy. By the time that I arrived all of the equipment and trawl had been removed from the boat and the excavator was breaking up the hull. The bow had been dragged to the high water mark so that the incoming tide would not carry it away.

With new draggers being made of fiberglass, boats with this type of wooden hull construction are becoming a rarity. At 15-20 years old, the Papa's Boys was actually one of the younger wooden boats in the Digby scallop fleet. Many of the wooden boats would be over 30 years old.

Ironically, the spot where the bow was sitting was used as a shipyard in the 1980s.

To read more about the journey of Papa's Boys and other interesting history from the Annaypolis Royal region of Nova Scotia, visit Ryan's blog.

Cormorants & dinosaurs!

I certainly don't claim to know much about the millons of year that dinosaurs roaming Bay of Fundy - let's leave that to the fine folks at the Fundy Geological Museum and Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Nova Scotia) and the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John (New Brunswick).

Really though, if you look 'sideways' at some of today's animals, it's quite easy to believe that they evolved from dinosaurs. OK this connection may be tricky to see in your puppy or your budgie but how about a crocodile (not in Fundy!) or a whale (lots in Fundy).

For me, there is something about cormorants that makes me believe in dinosaurs. Cormorants are not most charming of birds: they're awkward, aggressive and strong....kind of pterodactyl-like? or so I think when I see them on my daily dog walk to the beach....

Will the 'Bay of Fundy' site be chosen to be one of the New7Wonders?