Grand Manan Island

Grand Manan sits in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy with cliffs up to about a hundred metres on the western side and fishing harbours on the sheltered east. Nutrient upwelling in the surrounding waters draws whales, and the island is one of the more reliable places to see the North Atlantic right whale, a species down to a few hundred individuals; humpbacks, finbacks and minkes are also present. Dark Harbour is the centre of the dulse trade, an edible seaweed picked off the rocks at low tide and dried in the sun, sold across the Maritimes. Willa Cather spent summers here writing.

History

The island was likely sighted by Sebastian Cabot in 1498, charted around 1520 by the Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes and first shown on Diogo Homem's map of 1558; in 1606 Samuel de Champlain sheltered on nearby White Head Island, and the name is believed to come from mun-an-ook, the island, in the languages of the Wolastoqiyik, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot. Attempts to settle in 1763 and 1773 lasted only a year, and the first permanent settlement was founded in 1784 by Moses Gerrish on what he called Ross Island; the United States also claimed the island until a commission in 1817 gave it to Britain (Wikipedia, Grand Manan).

The landscape

• The western cliffs - a hundred-metre wall along the exposed side.
• The whales - right, humpback and finback whales feeding offshore.
• The dulse harvest - seaweed picked by hand at Dark Harbour and sun-dried.
• Swallowtail Lighthouse - a light on a headland above the ferry terminal.

When to go

July to September for whales, which peak in August; the ferry runs year-round but weather cancels crossings. Fog is frequent in summer and can persist for days.

Good to know

Fog cancels whale trips and can sit over the island for days. Right whale sightings are increasingly rare as the population declines. The ferry books out with vehicles in summer.

Nearby

Campobello lies north; Blacks Harbour is the mainland terminal.

Key facts