Canadian Field-Naturalist: Fishes stranded during extreme Iow tides in Minas Basin, Nova Scotia

The Bay of Fundy is well known as the greatest tidal range in the world. Due to the gradual slope of the shore in the Minas Basin, the maximal extreme low water line during spring tides result in exposure of additional square miles of sub-littoral habitat for periods of usually less than 30 minutes. During occasional extreme tides between 1966 and 1972, fish were examined and collected by hand from the floor of the Minas Basin off Kingsport, Kings County, at a site with high-water depths of approximately 48 feet. The area sampled was about 0.6 of a mile from strand line. The field technique was to arrive one hour before low tide and following the receding tide, searching the pools as they became exposed. The prime interest was invertebrates and fish, as collections were limited to only a few specimens of each species. On each trip, no attempt was made to collect larger specimens of skates, flounders, sea ravens, lumpfish, and goosefish. The study resulted in several new records for species not previously reported from the Minas Basin. Most of the fish species have one or more adaptations fitting them to live in the Minas Basin intertidal zone with its dynamic semi-diurnal tides of nearly 50-foot amplitude. Examples of these adaptations according to Bleakney and McAllister (1973) were as follows: one third of the species were euryhaline (anadromous, catadromous or brackish-water tolerants); benthic fishes with flattened bodies; large broad-base heads; barbels to find food (turbidity prevents visual prey location) and perhaps mechanism to decrease clogging of gills by wave disturbed sediments. An article describing the tidal pool study was published in the Canadian Field-Naturalist (Bleakney and McAllister, 1973). Species distribution information associated with this article were digitized, standardized and republished by OBIS Canada as part of the Atlantic Coastal Zone Information Steering Committee (ACZISC) Atlantic Ecosystem Initiative (AEI) funded project “Atlantic Canada’s Biological Data for Ecosystem Planning and Decision-making”. This resource contains simple presence information - scientific name and location. Precise information on the location and date of sampling was not provided in the published article.

Citation: Bleakney, J.S. and McAllister, D.E. (2016) Canadian Field-Naturalist: Fishes stranded during extreme low tides in Minas Basin, Nova Scotia. Version 1 In OBIS Canada Digital Collections. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, NS, Canada. Published by OBIS, Digital http://www.iobis.org/. Accessed on –INSERT DATE

Published: April 16, 2021 at 11:33

URL: http://ipt.iobis.org/obiscanada/resource?r=cfn_87_bleakney_mcailister_fish