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For visitors to Burntcoat Head Park in Nova Scotia, a scramble along the russet shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean is a pilgrimage to the site of one of the planet’s great natural wonders.
Twice a day, more than 100bn tons of seawater fills and drains the Bay of Fundy – a figure comparable to the flow of all the world’s freshwater rivers combined.
For that reason, the community has long and proudly proclaimed their far-reaching tides as the world’s highest – a claim confirmed by Guinness World Records.
But a row has broken out over those claims, with a northern Canadian community claiming that new data – and longstanding local knowledge – suggests their tides, in fact, rise higher.
“All we hear is about how the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides,” says Adamie Delisle Alaku, who lives in the Nunavik region of Quebec and is the executive vice-president of Makivvik’s department of environment, wildlife and research. “Kudos to them for all the work they’ve done to promote it – and we mean them no ill will – but the reality is, ours are higher.”
Makivvik, the organisation that represents the interests of the Inuit in Nunavik, said earlier this month that the community of Tasiujaq would assume “its rightful place” as the location of the world’s highest tidal range after fresh data found their tides reached nearly 2 metres higher than those of Burntcoat Head Park.
The data comes as little surprise to people in Tasiujaq, a community of 420 people that sits at the head of a fjord-like inlet. Tides are a quirk of geography and the swell of those waters, which rush in through the broader Leaf Basin of Ungava Bay, once reached 16.6 metres in 1953, higher than anywhere else on the planet.
But the world of tidal records is obscure and squabbles break out over total tidal height and the broader tidal range, the latter of which is claimed by Burntcoat Head.
In 2003, the Nunavik Tourism Association attempted a new study of the tides in an attempt to dispute Burntcoat Head’s title – but battery failure in one of the key sensors meant the devices produced inconsistent results. Still, the fragments of data they salvaged hinted at a tidal range that was “more substantial” than the current world record, said Delisle Alaku.
Now, the latest study, conducted between 2024 and 2025 using specialised equipment, local divers and strategic sensor placement, found a tidal range of 16.3 metres at the north end of Leaf Basin, compared with Burntcoat Head’s range of 14.5 metres.
“We’re really excited about the findings, which confirm what we’ve long known about the tides here,” said Delisle Alaku.
The Makivvik Corporation, which oversees the land claims for the Inuit in the region, says it has submitted its findings to the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS), which the department is now analysing and reviewing before drawing scientific conclusions.
In the interim, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans suggested the two sites’ tides were in effect the same. “It’s very unfortunate they’re saying the tides are tied,” said Delisle Alaku. “We hope they study our submission quickly and draw the same conclusions as we did.”
Delisle Alaku says northern communities often struggle with inaccurate weather and tidal data and so the new results will give them new insights into how to safely navigate the area. In the future, he envisions the ability to show tidal movements in real time, giving people in the region a rare glimpse of accurate and useful information.
But there could also be another benefit to taking the crown.
Representatives of Burntcoat Head Park did not respond to a request for comment, but the signage around the park and in the local area, proclaiming the world’s highest tides, underscores just how much is at stake.
Walks on tidal flats and the famed Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick draw in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year – and generate hundreds of millions of tourism dollars for the broader region.
Delisle Alaku said while an influx of curious tourists was unlikely, the new data could attract those who want to experience the natural world at its extremes.
A recent study found that the oldest rocks on the planet, dating back 4.16bn years, are located in Nunavik. And the perfectly circular Pingualuit meteorite impact crater – the “crystal eye of Nunavik” – is filled with some of the purest freshwater on Earth.
“And now they have something else to see that really showcases how much beauty there is in these lands and waters,” said Delisle Alaku. “And they’ll truly experience the world’s highest tides.”
