Station 04 · Ocean
Fundy's constant mixing keeps its water rich in nutrients and full of life — but also cold, murky, and powerful. Here's what you're actually looking at when you stand on the shore.
Summer
12–16 °C
Warmest at the shallow head of the bay.
Winter
0–3 °C
Ice sheets form in the Minas Basin.
Deepest point
240 m
Off Grand Manan Island, at the mouth.
Salinity
30–33 ppt
Slightly less salty than the open Atlantic.
The bay is famous for fog, especially in early summer when warm land air meets cold water. Currents are among the strongest in North America — some passages exceed 10 knots at peak flow. Boaters should always check tide-driven current tables, not just wind forecasts.
Fundy is not clear tropical water. The tides constantly stir sediment from the ocean floor, giving the bay its distinctive brown-red-green tint. Underwater visibility often measures just one to three metres. That suspended sediment is exactly what feeds the ecosystem.
Massive tidal mixing pumps nutrients from the seabed into sunlit surface waters. Tiny plankton bloom, feeding krill and small fish, which in turn draw whales, seabirds, and seals. The result is one of the richest and most productive marine ecosystems in the North Atlantic.
Fundy is warming, but more slowly than most of the North Atlantic because of that same cold, deep mixing. Scientists at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography monitor changes to fish stocks, plankton, and right whale migration patterns each season.