19 May 2022

Six Ways To Fundy

19 May 2022

May

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Thursday 19 May 2022--The Bay of Fundy is often said to have the highest tidal range in the world, up to sixteen meters (over 52 feet) at Burntcoat Head, in the upper reaches of the bay. I have occasionally seen claims of higher tides in odd remote places, notably Ungava Bay in the far north of Québec. I suspect the claims depend on precisely what is being measured. What isn't disputed is that Fundy has the highest tides in any easily accessible place in the world. Part of the reason for it is the narrowing shape of the bay and the gradual upward slope of its floor. But the larger cause of it is a phenomenon called a seiche, a matter of periodic resonance. The best way I can think to explain it is to relate it to a bathtub full of water. If you put your hand in the water and move it back and forth at the right speed, you can get it slosh back and forth pretty dramatically, which will get you a scolding from your mother when you get it all over the bathroom floor. Take my word for it. The longer your bathtub is, the slower the correct rhythm will be. This is exactly the same as the physics of musical instruments--the longer the string being plucked, or the tube being blown through, the slower the vibration, and the lower the tone produced. Anyway, if your bathtub were as big as the Bay of Fundy, its natural period would be about thirteen hours, which is just a bit longer than the rhythm of the great hand of the tide moving back and forth.

On a number of the rivers feeding the upper parts of the bay, the swell of water entering the constricted channel becomes a wave moving upstream. This is called a tidal bore, and it is a predictable event, occurring roughly every twelve and a half hours. Today's bore on the Petitcodiac River will pass by Moncton at 1:08pm, according to the sign by Bore View Park, next to my hotel. The size of the bore varies according to the phases of the moon, and today's is not supposed to be a particularly big one. Years ago, the wave was up to six feet in height, but a causeway carrying a road across the river caused the bore to be greatly diminished. The gates on the causeway were opened some years ago, and last year, the whole thing was dismantled and replaced with a bridge. The bore has returned to a height of about three feet at the highest tides.

I'm up early enough today to partake of the free breakfast at my hotel, which, predictably, isn't really worth getting up for. Go back to bed for a bit, then have a stroll around town and hang in a café for a while. At the appropriate time, I go down to the river and watch the bore. Take a series of stills with my camera, and attempt to shoot video with my phone simultaneously, but I botch the latter. As predicted, the wave is not very high, maybe a foot or two. Many people who witness the bore are underwhelmed, and say it is aptly named. It's necessary, I think, to keep expectations in check--the wave itself is not really very impressive. But it's easy to overlook the volume of water behind it, and the power of it all.

[The tidal bore on the Qiantang River in China is quite another thing.]

With the rest of the afternoon to play with, I decide to take a drive to Bouctouche, on the Acadian shore. My high school French tells me to pronounce "ou" like "oo" as in boot, but local pronunciation has it like "oo" as in foot--Book Tush. A few miles north of town, I visit the Irving Eco-Centre.

The Irving family, through its numerous businesses, is one of the wealthiest in Canada, and almost certainly the wealthiest in the Maritimes. Their empire began in the early 1920s with a Ford dealership and a gas station owned by KC Irving, a son of Bouctouche. It grew into Irving Oil, and branched into real estate, wood products, transport, media, and a host of other businesses. The Irving companies have always been privately held, meaning that the family has never answered to stockholders or a board of directors. This is a double-edged sword--it's allowed them to respond to economic conditions in a shrewd and nimble manner, but a lack of accountability has often led to a public perception of arrogance. Disputes with labor and tax-sheltering in Bermuda did nothing to burnish KC's image, either. It's nonetheless hard to argue with success, and it's fair to note that a large regional oil company has been at the forefront of investment in renewable and alternative energy sources.

The Irving family has also engaged in numerous charitable and civic endeavors, often without publicity. One of their more visible gifts to the community is the Eco-Centre, which is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the twelve-kilometer-long Dune de Bouctouche. There's an interpretation center with a lookout tower, and a half-mile boardwalk that allows the visitor to appreciate the dune without disturbing the habitat of the local wildlife. The shifting nature of sand dunes is demonstrated by the fact that a good stretch of the boardwalk, originally built down the center of the dune, is now on the beach, and that a long stretch of it beyond the existing half mile was destroyed by winter storms.* I walk the length of the boardwalk and a bit farther on the beach. If time and fitness would permit, I might walk a good distance more, perhaps all the way to the Bouctouche Bar Light. Well, maybe not...it's a fifteen-mile round trip. It's not like there's a pub out there or anything.

Meander along the coastal roads to Shediac, where I have dinner at Auberge Gabrièle, a pasta dish with shrimp and mussels. Back in Moncton, I finish my day with pints at Pump House, the town's oldest brewpub, opened in 1999.

Next

*And again...in September 2022, the boardwalk was heavily damaged during Hurricane Fiona, the strongest cyclonic storm ever recorded in Canada. The damage here was just a tiny fraction of the havoc caused throughout Atlantic Canada, particularly in southeastern New Brunswick, southwestern Newfoundland, most of Nova Scotia, and all of Prince Edward Island.

Moncton, Bouctouche, Shediac