Contact: Canadian Wildlife Service
PO Box 6227, Sackville, N.B. E4L 1G6 Canada
Tel:
506 364-5042
Fax:
506 364-5062
New Brunswick-Nova Scotia, Canada. Two sections of the Upper Bay of Fundy: Minas Basin, Nova Scotia.
Geographic Coordinates: 45o 50' to 45o 10' N and Shepody Bay, New Brunswick 64o 40' to 64o 00' W. Canada.
Area
of Site:
620 square km. (239 square miles) divided
between 16,900 hectares (41,750 acres) in Minas Basin, Nova Scotia and 5,060
hectares (12,500 acres) in Shepody Bay, New Brunswick.
Bay
of Fundy Land Description:
Mostly intertidal mudflat and salt marsh around the
head of the Bay of Fundy, where tides rise and fall over 12-15 meters (36-45
feet) twice daily. Sediments range from
coarse sand to fine silt and clay. Areas
most used for foraging by sandpipers are around the transition from sand to mud. Most of the salt marshes have been diked and
drained for agriculture, reducing tidal export, but runoff of agriculture
effluents has increased.
Land Use:
Neither area is heavily
populated. Shepody Bay is bordered by
marshes and some farmland (principally pasture). The city of Moncton with a population of 100,000 is situated 20
miles north of the Reserve along the Petitcodiac River. The Bay is not used significantly for
recreational fishing although Blue Mussel and salmon aquaculture have grown to a
significant extent in the last 20 years, particularly in Passamaquoddy Bay.
The Southern Bight of Minas
Basin is populated by the small towns of Wolfville (3,200), Kentville (3,600)
and Windsor (5,200). Evangeline Beach,
where shorebirds roost, is bordered by summer homes and cottages, pastures and
saltmarsh. In recent years, the
mudflats have been used by fish-bait harvesters; a field study conducted by the
Nova Scotia Department of Natural resources showed that the densities of
bloodworms Ghlycera dibranchiata in areas where they were harvested were lower
than the densities in areas where no harvesting took place (Shepherd, 1994).
Protection:
Governmental ownership allows some control over
human access, but little or no control over pollution from marine areas or from
regions further inland. Undeeded or
undefined intertidal marshes and tidal flats are not protected. Legislation has been suggested to close some
areas to bait harvesting.
Current Threats:
Development of barrages for
generation of tidal power is a potential threat to the system. The province of Nova Scotia has expressed
interest in the Cobequid Bay site whese tidal power developments could
drastically alter tidal oscillation patterns (see Gordon and Dadswell, 1984),
but no proposals are under active consideration. Construction of a causeway
across the Petitcodiac River in Moncton in 1968 may have contributed to
long-term changes in sediment quality and distribution (see Shepherd et al. 1995). Baitworm harvesting and increasing human disturbance
to high tide roosting areas by tourists or users of all-terrain vehicles are
the most obvious problems at present.
Biology:
Thirty-four species of shorebirds have been recorded
using the marshes and mudflats of the upper Bay of Fundy. Semipalmated Sandpipers occur from mid-July
to early September with total numbers
ranging between 1,000,000 and 2,500,000 birds in any one year when the birds
stopover to replenish fat reserves during that time (see Environment Canada.
1996. The Sandpipers of Fundy. Canadian Wildlife Service brochure, 8 pp. ISBN 0-662-24695-0). Typically, peak numbers are attained during
the first week of August. Several tens
of thousands of Least Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plovers and several thousand
Short-billed Dowitchers, Black-bellied Plovers and about 2,000 Sanderlings pass
through the Bay during this time.
Later, several thousand White-rumped Sandpipers and Dunlin appear,
extending into October. At least 15
other species pass through the area, but do not exceed 1000 individuals for
each species.
Major Causes of
Disturbance:
Biology: What Shorebird Species Use This Site?
Common Species:
Recent Management & Research Activities
The Canadian Wildlife Service
and the New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources & Energy have
prepared a Protection Plan for the New
Brunswick (Protection Plan for the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve and
Wetland of International Importance at the Grande Anse (Johnson’s Mills)
Section of the Shepody Bay Reserve, Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick, Canada,
Sackville, N.B. 30 August, 1993, 25 pp.) and Nova Scotia (Management Plan
for the Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve and Ramsar Wetland of
International Importance at Southern Bight, Minas Basin, Bay of Fundy,
Sackville, N.B. February, 1994, 20 pp.) sections of the Bay of Fundy Shorebird
Hemispheric Reserve. These plans
concentrate on protecting important shorebird roosting and feeding sites and
surrounding lands. Future research
needs are also identified.
Because of extremely large
roosts of Semipalmated Sandpipers (numbering in the 100,000's) in the Bay of
Fundy during the daily high tide periods, counting birds with any accuracy has
been a difficult process, frustrating efforts to provide relevant trend
information over time. In order to
eliminate problems of between-observer differences in counts, an objective
methodology of quantifying large roosting numbers of sandpipers has been
devised whereby an observer need only measure the area occupied by the roosting
flock. A paper explaining this
methodology was published (Mawhinney et al., 1993). Applying this methodology at a well-surveyed site in the Bay of
Fundy, the total number of shorebirds using the bay each year was increased by
37 - 67% (of earlier annual estimates) thus bringing the total number of
Semipalmated Sandpipers migrating through Fundy each year up to 94% of the
world population in some years (see Morrison and Ross, 1989, Atlas of
Nearctic Shorebirds on the Coast of South America for estimates of world
population numbers for this species).
The numbers of birds present
are counted annually at the major roosting sites (Mary’s Point, Johnson’s
Mills, Evangeline Beach) through the fall migratory period by using direct
counts whenever possible or by measuring the size of the roost and multiplying
the area by a density figure (usually about 100 birds/m2). A three-year field
study to band and weigh Semipalmated Sandpipers at Johnson’s Mills was
conducted in 1997 – 1999 to monitor the birds’ ability to deposit fat reserves
following the opening of causeways across the Petitcodiac and Memramcook
Rivers.
Information
Relating to WHSRN
Ceremony
Celebrating Bay of Fundy’s Inclusion in WHSRN
celebration pending
Sackville, New Brunswick and Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
Local
Activities:
§
Marshlands
Frolics (Sackville)
§
Mud
Creek Days
§
Atlantic
Theatre Festival (Wolfville).
Bibliography
Gordon, D.C.
Jr. and M.J. Dadswell. 1984. Update on the marine
environmental consequences of tidal power development in the upper reaches of
the Bay of Fundy. Can.
Tech. Rep. Fish. Aquat. Sci. No. 1256: vii + 686p.
Hicklin, P. W. 1987. The migration of shorebirds in the Bay of Fundy. Wilson Bull. 99(4): 540-570.
Mawhinney, K., P.W. Hicklin
and J.S. Boates. 1993. A re-evaluation of the numbers of migrant Semipalmated Sandpipers Calidris pusilla in the Bay of Fundy
during fall migration. Can. Field-Nat. 107 (1): 19 – 23.
Morrison, R.I.G. and R.K.
Ross.1989. Atlas
of nearctic shorebirds on the coast of South America. Vols. 1 and 2, Can.
Wildl. Serv. Spec. Publ., Ottawa.
Shepherd, P. 1994. Bloodworm harvesting in the
Bay of Fundy Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve and the impact on bloodworm (glycera dibranchiata) populations and
breeding condition. Unpublished Report to the Nova Scotia Dept. Natural
Resources, Kentville, Nova Scotia. 26 pp.
Shepherd, P., V.A. Partridge
and P.W. Hicklin. 1995. Changes in sediment types and invertebrate fauna in the intertidal
mudflats of the Bay of Fundy between 1977 and 1994. CWS Technical Report series
No. 237. Canadian Wildlife Service, Sackville, N.B