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.

芬迪湾(Bay of Fundy)以全球最大潮差闻名于世。由于米纳斯盆地(Minas Basin)的海岸坡度平缓，春汛期间的极端最低水位线会使额外数平方英里的潮下带栖息地(sub-littoral habitat)暴露在外，暴露时长通常不足30分钟。

1966年至1972年间的偶发极端潮汐事件中，研究人员于国王县金斯波特附近的米纳斯盆地海床，在水深约48英尺的采样点位，以手采方式调查并采集了鱼类样本。采样区域距离岸线(strand line)约0.6英里。野外采样流程为：在低潮前一小时抵达现场，跟随退潮过程逐一搜寻刚露出的潮池。本次调查的核心目标为无脊椎动物与鱼类，且每个物种仅采集少量标本。每次采样均不尝试采集鳐类、鲽类、绒杜父鱼、圆鳍鱼与安康鱼的大型个体。

本研究获取了若干此前未在米纳斯盆地被记录过的物种新分布记录。

多数鱼类物种具备一项或多项适应性特征，以适应米纳斯盆地潮间带的动态环境：该区域的半日潮潮汐波动幅度近50英尺。据布莱克利尼与麦卡利斯特（Bleakney and McAllister, 1973）的研究，这些适应性特征包括：三分之一的物种为广盐性物种（涵盖溯河洄游、降河洄游或耐咸淡水类群）；身体扁平的底栖鱼类；拥有宽大基底的头部；以及用于觅食的触须——浑浊水体阻碍了视觉定位猎物，而该结构或可同时减少波浪扰动沉积物堵塞鳃部的概率。

一篇描述该潮池调查研究的论文发表于《加拿大野外自然学家(Canadian Field-Naturalist)》期刊（Bleakney与McAllister, 1973）。该论文附带的物种分布数据经加拿大海洋生物地理信息系统(OBIS Canada)数字化、标准化后，作为大西洋海岸带信息指导委员会(Atlantic Coastal Zone Information Steering Committee, ACZISC)资助的“大西洋加拿大生态系统规划与决策用生物数据”大西洋生态系统倡议(Atlantic Ecosystem Initiative, AEI)项目的一部分重新发布。本资源仅包含基础的存在记录信息：物种学名与采样点位。已发表论文中未提供采样点位与采样日期的精确信息。