Picture the largest all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant in the world stretched out along a highway. The selection is virtually limitless and tourists drop in from far and wide as they make their way to Canada’s Arctic, or the shores of South America. For mammals, fish and birds, this is what the Bay of Fundy is: a place to stop and get a bite to eat.

Coastal waters like the Bay of Fundy tend to be rich in food, but few offer the variety you find here. Fewer still feature the dramatic tides that the Bay is known for, which have created two very distinct habitats for food.

At the mouth of the Bay are deep, cold, relatively clear waters where the tides are strongest. This area is a breeding ground for phytoplankton – microscopic plants that form a vital link in a food chain that feeds  animals of all sizes, from plankton to whales.

Meanwhile, the waters at the head of the bay tend to be rather muddy, filled with silt and clay from the shoreline. Though there is less biological activity, there are salt marshes and, when the tides recede, mudflats. Both are rich in nutrients, making them a popular destination for millions of fish and birds, particularly the semipalmated sandpiper.

Two million sandpipers in beautiful Atlantic Canada stop off at the Bay of Fundy on their way to South America with one goal in mind: getting their feed on. When they arrive in early August, most birds weigh about 16 grams, but when they leave roughly 10 days later, they weigh about 32 grams. That gives them enough energy to make the long, non-stop voyage to their winter grounds.

The food produced in the Bay of Fundy connects it to North, Central and South America biologically, and to the entire North Atlantic. But when it comes to distance that animals travel just to feed here, or variety of food, there really is no place like it. A haven and a buffet for thousands of species, the Bay of Fundy is New7Wonders of Nature worthy.

‘Round the Bay