If you’ve every wondered what a wonder of nature looks like, now you can find out. In Canada. Located between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on Canada’s Atlantic coast, the Bay of Fundy with its record-breaking tides is a top 28 finalist in a global campaign—presented by the New Open World Corporation and supported by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals—to name the “New7Wonders of Nature.” Competition is fierce. Legendary, you might even say.
The bay is up against such icons as the United States’ river-sculpted Grand Canyon, Australia and Papua New Guinea’s Great Barrier Reef, and the Amazon rainforest. What puts the Bay of Fundy in such world-famous company, you ask? It’s like this: if tides are the ocean’s heartbeat, the Bay of Fundy is a pounding pulse. Fundy tides are the world’s highest, rising as much as 15 m (50 ft) twice a day. That’s 100 billion tonnes of sea water flowing in and out of the bay in one cycle; more water than the combined flow of all the world’s freshwater rivers!
But it’s not just the high tides. At low tide, you can walk the ocean floor, scoping out the reddish, striated flower-pot-shaped Hopewell Rocks, sculpted by the churning tides. Return hours later to paddle around the same age-old sandstone pillars.
Speedy finbacks, white-bellied minkes and the rare right whale make the area one of the best whale-watching spots on the east coast.
Public voting for the final seven is now open. Check out the 28 finalists, ranked live each week, on the New7Wonders website. The website will announce the winners in 2011.
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Bay of Fundy Facts
- The Bay of Fundy is a rich source of dinosaur bones and plant fossils.
- Fifteen species of whales visit the nutrient-rich waters of the Bay of Fundy.
- It takes about roughly six hours, 13 minutes for the Bay of Fundy tides to go from high to low (and vice-versa).
- Thirty-four species of shorebirds have been recorded using the marshes and mudlands of the upper Bay of Fundy.
- Cape Enrage (an island light station located in the Bay of Fundy) offers one of the best views of the natural phenomenon from its towering cliffs and has a six-km-long (3.7-mi) fossil beach.