Cobscook Bay
Low tide, Lubec, ca. 1915. Collections of Lubec Historical Society.
In between Eastport and Lubec is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy that is home to some of the highest tides in the United States. Cobscook Bay sits on volcanic bedrock created more than 400 million years ago. Its deep valleys and convoluted shoreline were carved by massive ice sheets in the last Ice Age. The combination of the bay’s deep and narrow channels and the broader dynamics of the Bay of Fundy result in tides that average 24 feet and sometimes rise as high as 30 feet in extreme conditions.
Those extreme tides help create one of Maine’s most ecologically rich coastal environments. For thousands of years, the Passamaquoddy Tribe has relied on the bay for fishing, harvesting, and travel. Early settlers built livelihoods around fishing and clamming and, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, developed industries such as sardine canning.
While some of those industries are no longer the economic drivers they once were in the bay area, Cobscook continues to support the fishing and shellfish industries, a growing aquaculture industry, and emerging tidal energy projects. However, its most important role is that its complex ecosystem supports a robust diversity of species. It is critical habitat – home to one of the highest densities of nesting bald eagles in the northeastern United States, a summer range for finback, minke, and right whales, and a vital stopover for migrating birds – and a place where scientists study how changing ocean conditions are reshaping coastal ecosystems.
Author: Stephanie Bouchard
