Seasonal occurrence of waterbirds in Minas Passage, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada, 2010 to 2012

2021 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-141
Author(s):  
Patrick L. Stewart ◽  
Fulton L. Lavender ◽  
Heather A. Levy
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Seasonal Abundance ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Somateria Mollissima ◽  
Migration Pathway ◽  
Cepphus Grylle ◽  
Surf Scoter ◽  
Abundance And Diversity

We determined patterns of seasonal abundance and diversity of seabirds and coastal waterfowl in Minas Passage, Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, Canada using quantitative, shore-based point surveys from mid-March to late August and mid-October to December 2010 to 2012. This area experiences the world’s highest tides and greatest tidal currents. We showed that species and seasonal cycles of waterbirds in Minas Passage reflect patterns typical of the inner Bay of Fundy and the northeast Atlantic coast of North America. The study highlights the importance of Minas Passage as an important local migration pathway for waterbirds including Black Scoter (Melanitta americana) and Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata) passing through the Bay of Fundy. Large numbers of sea ducks (Black Scoter, Surf Scoter [Melanitta perspicillata], White-winged Scoter (Melanitta fusca), and Long-tailed Duck [Clangula hyemalis]), and Red-throated Loon were observed at the site in spring and fall, corresponding to known peak movements elsewhere in the Bay of Fundy. Fewest species and smallest abundances of waterbirds overall occurred in summer and early winter, while most species and largest abundances occurred in April-May and early November. Of the 46 species observed, resident breeders such as Herring Gull (Larus argentatus), Great Black-backed Gull (Larus marinus), Common Eider (Somateria mollissima), Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle), and Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), were most abundant in spring to early summer during breeding and migrants including Red-throated Loon, Black Scoter, Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis), Surf Scoter, and Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) occurred in moderate numbers during migration periods.

scholarly journals A review of the fishes and fisheries of Minas Basin and Minas Passage, Nova Scotia, and their potential risk from tidal power development

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Michael J. Dadswell ◽  
Roger A. Rulifson
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Seasonal Occurrence ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Species Status ◽  
Power Development ◽  
Tidal Power ◽  
Potential Impact

A total of 85 species of fish are known or suspected from Minas Basin and Minas Passage, Nova Scotia, Canada. This systematic review details their seasonal occurrence, habitat, abundance, migratory behavior, fisheries and potential impact from tidal power development. The fish assemblage is a mixture of species common to the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia as well as numerous warm- and cold-water visitors seldom found elsewhere in Canada. Minas Basin fisheries exploit some species especially those that migrate through the Basin during summer. Fishes were captured or observed using angling, seines, benthic long lines, drift and fixed gill nets, intertidal fish weirs, bottom trawls and sightings while on vessels. Fishes are categorized with respect to their taxonomic diversity, seasonal occurrence, status, fisheries and the potential impact from tidal lagoons and propeller turbines resulting from development of tidal power in Minas Basin and Minas Passage. Keywords: Bay of Fundy, habitat, species status, propeller turbines, taxonomic relationship, tidal lagoons.

scholarly journals First visual record of rare purple-colored dogwhelks (Nucella lapillus) on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada

F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 2435
Author(s):  
Sonja M. Ehlers ◽  
Julius A. Ellrich
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Rocky Intertidal ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Nucella Lapillus ◽  
Shell Color ◽  
The North ◽  
Intertidal Gastropod ◽  
Visual Record

The dogwhelk Nucella lapillus is a rocky intertidal gastropod of the North Atlantic coast. Individual shell color varies. Common colors range between white and brown, with darker dogwhelks being more affected by heat stress than lighter-colored conspecifics. Other reported shell colors are purple, black, mauve, pink, yellow, and orange from UK coasts, red and gray from the Bay of Fundy coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Canada), and purple, black, gray, yellow, and orange from the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts (USA), with purple being considered as a rare color. On the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, dogwhelks are active from April until November, but information on dogwhelk shell color is missing for this coast. On 16 June 2016, we found two purple-colored dogwhelks in the mid-to-high intertidal zone of a moderately wave-exposed rocky shore near Duncans Cove, on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia while collecting dogwhelks (n= 1000) during low tide for manipulative field experiments. All other dogwhelks collected on that day were of common white and brown colors. During earlier dogwhelk collections in Atlantic Nova Scotia (between 2011-2013) and field surveys in Duncans Cove (between 2014-2016), we did not find any purple-colored dogwhelks, indicating the rareness of this color in that region. Apparently, our observations provide the first visual record of rare purple-colored dogwhelks on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

scholarly journals First visual record of rare purple dogwhelks (Nucella lapillus) on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 2435
Author(s):  
Sonja M. Ehlers ◽  
Julius A. Ellrich
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Rocky Intertidal ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Nucella Lapillus ◽  
Shell Color ◽  
The North ◽  
Intertidal Gastropod ◽  
Visual Record

The dogwhelk Nucella lapillus is a rocky intertidal gastropod of the North Atlantic coast. Individual shell color varies. Common colors range between white and brown, with darker dogwhelks being more affected by heat stress than lighter-colored conspecifics. Other reported shell colors are black, mauve, pink, yellow, and orange from European coasts, red and grey from the Bay of Fundy coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Canada), and purple, black, gray, yellow, and orange from the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts (USA), with purple being considered as a rare color. On the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, dogwhelks are active from April until November, but information on dogwhelk shell color is missing for this coast. On 16 June 2016, we found two purple dogwhelks in the mid-to-high intertidal zone of a moderately wave-exposed rocky shore near Duncans Cove, on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia while collecting dogwhelks (n= 1000) for manipulative field experiments. All other dogwhelks collected on that day were of common white and brown colors. During earlier dogwhelk collections in Atlantic Nova Scotia (between 2011-2013) and field surveys in Duncans Cove (between 2014-2016), we did not find any purple dogwhelks, indicating the rareness of this color in that region. Interestingly, the purple dogwhelks were detected on a relatively cool day (12.3 ± 0.4 °C, mean ± se, n= 96 temperature measurements) compared to the intertidal temperatures of all other survey days (≥ 18.2 ± 0.5 °C), suggesting that purple dogwhelks may find it less thermally stressful to venture out of crevices and macroalgal cover under relatively cool temperatures. Our observations provide the first visual record of rare purple dogwhelks on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Canadian Atlantic Oyster Drills (Urosalpinx) — Distribution and Industrial Importance

1969 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1121-1131 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Medcof ◽  
M. L. H. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Distribution Patterns ◽  
Cape Cod ◽  
Critical Examination ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Field Collection ◽  
Urosalpinx Cinerea ◽  
Occurrence Records

Distribution of drills (Urosalpinx cinerea Say) was worked out from critical examination of museum holdings, from assessment of published and several unpublished occurrence records, and from field collection in new areas. Drills occur in warm inlets on the Nova Scotia coast of the Bay of Fundy, possibly in one inlet of the outer Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, and in several inlets of the southwestern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Only in the last were oysters found with the drills and there is only one record of serious damage to young oysters. Distribution patterns suggest that drills reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence by spreading eastward from Cape Cod, through the Bay of Fundy, then through a channel that is believed to have connected the Bay and the Gulf. There is no evidence of long-term restriction of distributional range since that pioneering period, but local distribution seems to have contracted so that now drills occupy only the warmest parts of their range. In the last 30 years, drill abundance in some important oyster-producing sections of the Gulf of St. Lawrence has decreased, perhaps because of low sea temperatures. Old colonies persist but do little damage in oyster areas. No new colonies seem to have sprung up. In our area the species seems to be bordering on extinction. Drills are not a threat to the Canadian east-coast oyster industry.

scholarly journals First visual record of rare purple dogwhelks (Nucella lapillus) on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja M. Ehlers ◽  
Julius A. Ellrich
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Rocky Intertidal ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Nucella Lapillus ◽  
Shell Color ◽  
The North ◽  
Intertidal Gastropod ◽  
Visual Record

The dogwhelk Nucella lapillus is a rocky intertidal gastropod of the North Atlantic coast. Individual shell color varies. Common colors range between white and brown, with darker dogwhelks being more affected by heat stress than lighter-colored conspecifics. Other reported shell colors are black, mauve, pink, yellow, and orange from European coasts, red and grey from the Bay of Fundy coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Canada), and purple, black, gray, yellow, and orange from the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts (USA), with purple being considered as a rare color. On the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, dogwhelks are active from April until November, but information on dogwhelk shell color is missing for this coast. On 16 June 2016, we found two purple dogwhelks in the mid-to-high intertidal zone of a moderately wave-exposed rocky shore near Duncans Cove, on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia while collecting dogwhelks (n= 1000) for manipulative field experiments. All other dogwhelks collected on that day were of common white and brown colors. During earlier dogwhelk collections in Atlantic Nova Scotia (between 2011-2013) and field surveys in Duncans Cove (between 2014-2016), we did not find any purple dogwhelks, indicating the rareness of this color in that region. Interestingly, the purple dogwhelks were detected on a relatively cool day (12.3 ± 0.4 °C, mean ± se, n= 96 temperature measurements) compared to the intertidal temperatures of all other survey days (≥ 18.2 ± 0.5 °C), suggesting that purple dogwhelks may find it less thermally stressful to venture out of crevices and macroalgal cover under relatively cool temperatures. Our observations provide the first visual record of rare purple dogwhelks on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

scholarly journals First visual record of rare purple dogwhelks (Nucella lapillus) on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja M. Ehlers ◽  
Julius A. Ellrich
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Rocky Intertidal ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Nucella Lapillus ◽  
Shell Color ◽  
The North ◽  
Intertidal Gastropod ◽  
Visual Record

The dogwhelk Nucella lapillus is a rocky intertidal gastropod of the North Atlantic coast. Individual shell color varies. Common colors range between white and brown, with darker dogwhelks being more affected by heat stress than lighter-colored conspecifics. Other reported shell colors are black, mauve, pink, yellow, and orange from European coasts, red and grey from the Bay of Fundy coast of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (Canada), and purple, black, gray, yellow, and orange from the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts (USA), with purple being considered as a rare color. On the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, dogwhelks are active from April until November, but information on dogwhelk shell color is missing for this coast. On 16 June 2016, we found two purple dogwhelks in the mid-to-high intertidal zone of a moderately wave-exposed rocky shore near Duncans Cove, on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia while collecting dogwhelks (n= 1000) for manipulative field experiments. All other dogwhelks collected on that day were of common white and brown colors. During earlier dogwhelk collections in Atlantic Nova Scotia (between 2011-2013) and field surveys in Duncans Cove (between 2014-2016), we did not find any purple dogwhelks, indicating the rareness of this color in that region. Interestingly, the purple dogwhelks were detected on a relatively cool day (12.3 ± 0.4 °C, mean ± se, n= 96 temperature measurements) compared to the intertidal temperatures of all other survey days (≥ 18.2 ± 0.5 °C), suggesting that purple dogwhelks may find it less thermally stressful to venture out of crevices and macroalgal cover under relatively cool temperatures. Our observations provide the first visual record of rare purple dogwhelks on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.

Geographic and seasonal variation in biological characteristics of American eel elvers in the Bay of Fundy area and on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia

1998 ◽  
Vol 76 (12) ◽  
pp. 2172-2185 ◽  
Author(s):  
B M Jessop
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
American Eel ◽  
East River ◽  
Commercially Important ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Seasonal Decline ◽  
Collection Date

Seasonal (April-July) patterns in the decline of length, mass, and condition and an increase in pigmentation stage of American eel (Anguilla rostrata) elvers collected during the estuarine commercial fishery and during entrance into fresh water varied among rivers in the Bay of Fundy and on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. Elver mean length, adjusted to a mean collection date, varied among commercially fished rivers by up to 9%; mean mass varied by up to 27%. Within commercially fished rivers, mean length declined seasonally by 2-5%, mass by 0-60%, and condition by 0-44%. Elver condition declined 7-9% by the time 50% of the run (number of elvers) had entered the East River, Chester, and East River, Sheet Harbour, and by 21% at 95% of the run, while the mean pigmentation stage increased to 4.1-4.8 and 5.7-6.5, respectively, on a scale of 1-7. Such geographic variability in biological traits may result from the effect of varying annual and seasonal environmental conditions on the coastal distribution of elvers and on their run timing and physiological development in estuarine and stream habitats. The biological importance of the seasonal decline in elver length, mass, and condition is uncertain, but a seasonal decline in mass of 35% may be commercially important when elvers are sold by weight rather than count.

Late Quaternary geological history of Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia

1978 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 586-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neal E. Barnes ◽  
David J. W. Piper
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Holocene Transgression ◽  
History Of ◽  
Seismic Reflection Profiling ◽  
Proglacial Lake ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

Mahone Bay is located on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. It is an exhumed Carboniferous basin, overdeepened by glacial erosion, with widespread late Wisconsinan sheet and drumlin tills. Subglacial channels that cut both till and bedrock were formed when the ice sheet stagnated after marine incursion into the Bay of Fundy. Seismic reflection profiling and piston cores show up to 75 m of proglacial lake silts ponded behind a bedrock sill at the entrance to the bay. These are overlain by a thin lagoonal sequence, and then by marine sediments accumulated over the last 6000 years, reflecting the gradual Holocene transgression.

Parasites of American shad, Alosa sapidissima (Osteichthyes: Clupeidae), from rivers of the North American Atlantic coast and the Bay of Fundy, Canada

1993 ◽  
Vol 71 (5) ◽  
pp. 941-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. E. Hogans ◽  
Michael J. Dadswell ◽  
Leslie S. Uhazy ◽  
Ralph G. Appy
Keyword(s):  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Geographic Location ◽  
Diversity Indices ◽  
American Shad ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Alosa Sapidissima ◽  
The North ◽  
Abundance And Diversity ◽  
First Time ◽  
Hysterothylacium Aduncum

Parasites belonging to a total of 26 taxa were recovered from 695 American shad (Alosa sapidissima) sampled from six rivers and one marine location (Cumberland Basin, Bay of Fundy) on the east coast of North America. Of these, 23 taxa are reported from American shad for the first time. Species identified were predominantly boreal marine forms that have low host specificities and widespread distributions. Two species, Hysterothylacium aduncum and Scolex pleuronectis, were found in American shad from all localities (> 60% prevalence). Relative abundance and diversity indices of the parasite assemblages varied in relation to geographic location and temporally in Cumberland Basin. These data suggest that there is different timing of arrival and departure of shad from individual river populations in Cumberland Basin. High levels of prevalence and incidence of exotic, southern parasite species, such as Genitocotyle atlantica, in shad from Cumberland Basin and most or all river populations indicate that all individual shad spend some portion of their life at or near the southern extent of their reported range.

Autumn Stranding of a Northern Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia

1975 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 1019-1040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Mitchell ◽  
V. Michael Kozicki
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Growth Curve ◽  
North American ◽  
Labrador Sea ◽  
Bay Of Fundy ◽  
Winter Migration ◽  
Hyperoodon Ampullatus

A 615-cm male northern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus) stranded in Cobequid Bay, Bay of Fundy, in early October 1969. The skull, mandible, tympano-periotics, and teeth are described and illustrated. Five growth layers in the lower teeth place the animal below a growth curve based on samples from the Labrador Sea taken in May and June. A summary of nine other North American occurrences of 12 individuals, mainly south of Sable Island, indicates a winter migration to waters offshore of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

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