For a List of Other Reviews & Ordering Information: Click HERE!

Would you like to comment about this or any other material on Outdoor Nova Scotia? Sound off - at Speaker's Corner, Outdoor Nova Scotia's outdoor discussion forum.

by Harry Thurston                                                                                  Photographs by Stephen Homer                                                                Nimbus Publishing - 167 pages                                                               Softcover                                                                                                                  Cost: $29.95                                                                                                           ISBN 1-55109-272-7

reviewed by Ronnie Scullion

New Revised Edition Now Available!

This rare treasure of a book is caviar for the mind and soul. Harry Thurston explores tidal life in the Bay of Fundy with the professionalism of a marine biologist, the candour and passion of a proactive environmentalist, and the pen of a poetic and literary master. Together with Stephen Homer's photographs the book captures the magnificence and raw beauty of the bay and marine life it sustains presenting an awe-inspiring portrait of this rare and beautiful corner of our earth. The global importance of the Bay of Fundy is never understated.

It is in the hopes of protecting and preserving this vital and dynamic
ecosystem that gave impetus to writing this book. Thurston shares with us his many insights into the bay's natural wonders what accounts for the dramatic rise and fall of the tides, the largest in the world; the geological formation of the spectacular coastline; and the varied and rich life that flourishes in this unusual ecosystem from the single-celled phytoplankton to the fish, birds and mammals that populate its waters and shore.

The "people" of the bay are also introduced: the fisherman and village folk, who as their ancestors before them rely on the bay for their livelihood; and the scientists and naturalists, who are drawn to the bay because of its scientific uniqueness and inspiring beauty. By contrast he also examines the imminent dangers of exploitation of the bay's natural resources.
Overfishing and pollution has already rendered some species of plants and animals endangered or extinct. Threats of development continue to pose a hazard.

Each chapter of the book is devoted to a thorough discussion of one main aspect or part of the bay. The bay is divided into Upper Bay, Bayshore and Lower Bay. Like a tour guide Thurston brings us around describing the distinctive character and physical outlay of each section, while highlighting its geological, environmental or economic importance.

Starting in the Upper Bay Thurston walks us through the coastal landscape, traversing the mud flats of the Minas Basin, sometimes sinking knee or "armpit deep".   Fisherman have set out their weirs. Catches of shad number in the thousands. We stop and visit the barrens that attract and feed millions of migratory birds each summer.

The tour continues on the Bayshore taking the reader to Parrsboro, where trapped in the sedimentary rock, dinosaur footprints tell a story of life beginning in the Carboniferous period through to the Jurrassic. Geological evidence supporting the theory of a catastrophic event that marked the division of the Triassic and Jurrassic is studied by palaeontologists and plaeoenvironmentalists attracted to the area because of the rich deposits and many fossil finds.

Up and down the French shore draggers and lobster boats indicate the mainstay of the small villages that dot the coastline. The Acadian culture is reflected in the people and the architecture of the area, colourfully depicted in the photographs.

In the Lower Bay Thurston takes us to Grand Manan Island where we board a whale watching boat. From here porpoises and finback whales are easily spotted. Less common, but also present are the humpbacks and the endangered North Atlantic right whales. The waters offer refuge to the cetaceans as there is an abundance of food and few predators.

At Dark Harbour, "the dulse capital of the world", corps of dulsers are pictured gathering the edible seaweed from the rocks exposed at low tide.

The tour doubles back and ends at the base of Cape Split. Sitting atop the precariously steep promontory which gives the best vantage point from which to view the changing tides Thurston reflects on the changing tides of time. From here spawned the stories of the legendary Glooscap, the Micmac man-god, who like the tides possessed extraordinary strength. And it is this enormous power, Thurston concludes, that may one day be the tides own undoing.

[Home Page] [Gearing Up] [Features] [Destinations] [News]

[Events] [Properties] [Top Five] [Directory]

info@outdoorns.com

Designed & maintained by Outdoor Nova Scotia, Liverpool, N.S. BOT 1KO
Material protected by copyright. Last revised: December 12, 2003