Assessing the Far Field Effects of Tidal Power Extraction on the Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Maine and Scotian Shelf

The Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine system has a natural resonant period very close to the main semi-diurnal lunar tide. This results in the world’s highest tides and strong tidal currents in the Bay of Fundy, particularly in the Minas Channel and Minas Basin. The physical and ecological conditions in the “far field” could undergo significant changes given significant extraction of tidal power from this near-resonant system. The “far-field” in this project includes the Bay of Fundy and adjacent Gulf of Maine and western Scotian Shelf. This research project is to quantify the far-field effects of tidal power extraction with a particular focus on tides, tidal current patterns, the vertical and horizontal distribution of temperature and salinity and also large-scale sediment distributions from numerical results produced by ocean circulation models.