Northumberland Strait
Northumberland Strait Geography
- Official Name: Northumberland Strait
- Geographic Feature Type Category: Hydrographic Feature
- Geographic Feature Type: Strait
- Latitude / Longitude: 45.866736, -62.74932
Northumberland Strait Maps
- 1:50k Topographic NTS Map: 011E09 / 011E10 / 011E14 / 011E15 /
- 1:250k Topographic NTS Map: 011E
- Other Maps:
About the Northumberland Strait
The Northumberland Strait is a large narrow tidal body of water that separates Prince Edward Island from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
It measures approximately 225 kilometers in length (varies in width up to 43 kilometers) from Richibucto Cape to Cape George, and is Pictou County‘s connection to the Atlantic Ocean.
The word strait comes from the Latin word strictus, meaning “to bind or draw tight and in this case refers to the narrow passage way that connects the southern parts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
It was named after the HMS Northumberland, a flagship of Admiralty Lord Colville from the Royal British Navy, that surveyed the Nova Scotia coast in 1764.
Its shallow depths tend to produce relative warm water temperatures (in summer), and is considered to be the warmest ocean waters on the Atlantic coast north of Virginia. It is home to a diverse ecosystem, and important habitats for a variety of marine species. Along its coast, you will find many sandy beaches, rocky cliffs, and picturesque areas that offer stunning views the maritime landscape.
The strait is famous in folklore circles for regular sightings of the Ghost Ship of Northumberland Strait, a flaming vessel which appears in the middle of the strait.
1777 Northumberland Strait Map
[Source: Government of Prince Edward Island / Wikipedia.org]
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