Gulf of St. Lawrence and Bay of Fundy

Where the Appalachians Meet the Sea

Map boundaries: 40 to 50 degrees North; 55 to 66 degrees West

Countries: Canada (New Brunswick (part), Newfoundland and Labrador (part), Nova Scotia (part), Prince Edward Island, Quebec (part); France (St.-Pierre and Miquelon).

Overview

The map area includes the Canadian provinces bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence—New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec—and the French islands of St.-Pierre and Miquelon. Islands within or bordering the Gulf of St. Lawrence include Anticosti Island, Cape Breton, Magdelan Islands, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Miscou, and Lameque. Also included are the shallow banks and islands off the Atlantic Coast, including Browns Bank, Sable Island Bank, Banquereau, and St. Pierre Bank. Ecologically, this is the transition from deciduous hardwood forests to boreal forests. Because the area is mountainous, tundra is found at some higher elevations. The numerous sandy beaches interspersed with rocky headlands provide scenery and seabird breeding areas. Historically, this region was the site of early British and French settlement in North America, with historic sites commemorating intact examples of early villages and the removal of the Acadians from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Geologically, this northernmost extension of the Appalachian Mountains is a geologic Galapagos, with oceanic crust rocks that provide evidence of continental drift, a coal age forest containing fossils of the earliest reptiles, and the world’s highest tides in the Bay of Fundy. Continue reading