Some Fun Facts about the Gulf of Maine, including the Bay of Fundy:
1. The French settled first in NA at St. Croix Island in 1604 and brought with them tidally powered grist mills.
2. The GOM/BOF is critical habitat for many species of whales including the endangered right whale which used the BOF as a refugia which protected a few females from the hunt and these females have helped bring right whales back from the absolute brink of probably only 50 animals in the 1930s.
3. The BOF (and maybe GOM) has the highest densities of harbour porpoises in the world (the Baltic used to have much higher densities but the porpoise population suffered from bycatch). The Passamaquoddies hunted them for food and also later for their oil. Many of the lighthouses used porpoise oil in the winter because it didn't solidify like seal oil did.
4. Most of the American Shad summer in the BOF/GOM
5. The GOM/BOF have the southern most nesting colonies for puffins, razorbills, common murres (and formally northern gannets), Arctic terns (and maybe a few other species like Leach's storm petrels) and the most northerly nesting for laughing gulls, although southern species are moving northward.
6. James Audubon stopped at White Head Island in May 1833 to paint the rare juvenile herring gull (also the common eider and puffin) and went on to lobby for the protection of herring gulls which I believe were the first birds protected in NA but you might want to check that.
7. The only war of aggression between Canada and the United States was fought at sea in the BOF/GOM (and other places) but it tested family loyalties since many of those who settled in Canada after the 1776 Rebellion were from New England. Britain continued to buy supplies from American fishermen, even though they were at war with each other because they needed the supplies for England since they were at war with the French. The only still disputed piece of property between Canada and the U.S. was not resolved after the War of 1812 and remains to this day - Machias Seal Island.
8. The oldest lighthouse in New England and the U.S. was built in Boston Harbour 1716. The tallest lighthouse is in Maine - Boon Island Light - 133 '. West Quoddy Head is the eastern most point of the continental U.S. but East Quoddy is in Canada on Campobello Island.
9. The Grand Manan archipelago has one of the highest diversities of seaweeds.
10. The GOM/BOF is on the eastern flyway and has spectacular spring and fall migrations with the upper part of the BOF designated an Western Hemispheric Shorebird Reserve Network and sees hundreds of thousands of shorebirds stop over on their migration. The mouth of the BOF has hundred of thousands of red and red-necked phalaropes using that area as a stopover. Three weeks of feeding builds back their fat reserves and they continue on to Africa or South America.
11. The highest tides on earth occur in the Gulf of Maine, ranging as much as 16 meters (52 feet) in the Minas Basin.
12. Georges Bank is one of the most productive fishing grounds in the world, due largely to the phytoplankton blooms caused by strong tidal currents, shallow waters, and relatively closed circulation.
