Bras d'Or Lake ( Mi'kmawi'simk: Pitupaq) is an irregular

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime enviro ...

in the centre of

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, Canada. It has a connection to the open sea, and is tidal. It also has inflows of fresh water from rivers, making the

brackish water Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuary ...

a very productive natural habitat. It was designated the Bras d'Or Lake Biosphere Reserve by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

in 2011.

Toponym

Pronounced ( or ), maps before 1872 name it ''Le Lac de Labrador'' (or more simply ''Labrador''). ''Labrador'' was the name given by the Portuguese to much of eastern Canada; the lake's name eventually evolved to resemble the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

''Arm of'' ''Gold'', a

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; '' homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or '' homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciat ...

. It is also called locally ''The Bras d'Or Lakes''. In Mi'kmawi'simk, the lake's name, ''Pitupaq'', refers to the brackish waters, meaning "the long salt water."

Geography

The lake has a surface area of 1099 square kilometers. Three

arm In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

s stretch out to the north east. At the top, the Great Bras d'Or Channel connects to the ocean via a navigable channel. The maximum depth is in St. Andrews Channel. It sits in a 3,500 square kilometre

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

. The western side is generally shallow, and is part of an extensive

drumlin A drumlin, from the Irish word ("little ridge"), first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or groun ...

field. Steep hills rise abruptly on the northwestern side, to the

Cape Breton Highlands The Cape Breton Highlands (, ), commonly called the Highlands, refer to a highland or mountainous plateau across the northern part of Cape Breton Island in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Considered a subrange of the Appalachian mountai ...

. The Denys,

Middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

Baddeck Baddeck () is a village on Cape Breton Island in northeastern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated in the center of Cape Breton, approximately 6 km east of where the Baddeck River empties into Bras d'Or Lake. Baddeck is the shire-town of t ...

, and Georges Rivers all empty into the lake. The lake water has lower

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...

than the surrounding ocean, and varies from about 20 parts per thousand near river mouths to 29 parts per thousand in deeper areas. Ice cover has been declining in recent years. The lake is connected to the North Atlantic by two natural channels; the Great and Little Bras d'Or Channels which pass on either side of

Boularderie Island Boularderie Island (pronounced "bull-uhr-dree") is an island separating the Cabot Strait from Bras d'Or Lake on the eastern coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. It takes its name from Louis-Simon le Poupet de la Boularderie, who was ...

. The southern tip of the lake is connected to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

via the

St. Peters Canal The St. Peters Canal is a small shipping canal located in eastern Canada on Cape Breton Island. It crosses an isthmus in the village of St. Peter's, Nova Scotia, St. Peter's, Nova Scotia which connects St. Peters Inlet of Bras d'Or Lake to the n ...

, built for shipping traffic in the 1860s. The restricted channels to the ocean cause a reduction in

tidal range Tidal range is the difference in height between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun, by Earth's rotation and by centrifugal force caused by Earth's prog ...

. Seaweed populations resemble those found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The warm waters are suitable for

eastern oyster The eastern oyster (''Crassostrea virginica'')—also called the Atlantic oyster, American oyster, or East Coast oyster—is a species of true oyster native to eastern North and South America. Other names in local or culinary use include the We ...

. Fish species include the

blackspotted stickleback The blackspotted stickleback (''Gasterosteus wheatlandi'') is species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Gasterosteidae, the sticklebacks. This fish is found in the western Atlantic from the coasts of Newfoundland (Canada) to Massachuset ...

white hake The white hake or mud hake (''Urophycis tenuis'') is a phycid hake. It is found in the deeper waters in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. Description The species can grow to be up to 30 cm by the end of the first year, and 400 mm if ma ...

blueback herring The blueback herring, blueback shad, or summer shad (''Alosa aestivalis'') is an anadromous species of herring from the east coast of North America, with a range from Nova Scotia to Florida. Blueback herring form schools and are believed to mi ...

Greenland cod The Greenland cod (''Gadus ogac''), commonly known also as ogac, is a species of ray-finned fish in the cod family, Gadidae. Genetic analysis has shown that it may be the same species as the Pacific cod (''Gadus macrocephalus''). It is a bottom-dw ...

, and introduced

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

. These feed

double-crested cormorant The double-crested cormorant (''Nannopterum auritum'') is a member of the cormorant family of water birds. It is found near rivers and lakes and in coastal areas and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska ...

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

s, and

great blue heron The great blue heron (''Ardea herodias'') is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America, as well as far northwestern South America, the Caribbea ...

Human history

In southwestern Nova Scotia, there is archaeological evidence that traces traditional land use and resources to at least 4,000 years.Ferguson, R. 1986. Archaeological Sites of Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia. Unpublished Ms., Parks Canada , Halifax.

Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...

peoples occupied lands around Bras d'Or Lake when European explorers first arrived. Named Unama'ki in their language, it is the fire (or capital district) of their country,

Mi'kma'ki Mi'kma'ki or Mi'gma'gi is composed of the traditional and current territories, or country, of the Mi'kmaq people, in what is now Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and eastern Quebec, Canada. It is shared by an Non-governmental ...

, part of the greater

Wabanaki Confederacy The Wabanaki Confederacy (''Wabenaki, Wobanaki'', translated to "People of the Dawn" or "Easterner"; also: Wabanakia, "Dawnland") is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of five principal Eastern Algonquian nations ...

of the Dawnland region. The Mi'kmaq call the lake ''Pitupaq'', meaning ''long salt water''. A French trading post was built in 1650.

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

built an estate

Beinn Bhreagh ( ) is the name of the former estate of Alexander Graham Bell, in Victoria County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It refers to a peninsula jutting into Cape Breton Island's scenic Bras d'Or Lake approximately southeast of the village of Baddeck, for ...

where he established a research laboratory, and used the lake to test man-carrying

kite A kite is a tethered heavier than air flight, heavier-than-air craft with wing surfaces that react against the air to create Lift (force), lift and Drag (physics), drag forces. A kite consists of wings, tethers and anchors. Kites often have ...

s, airplanes and

hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...

boats. Most of the shore is undeveloped, but settlements include

Eskasoni The Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation () is a band government of the Mi'kmaq First Nations, located in Unama'ki (Cape Breton), Nova Scotia, Canada. As of 2021, Eskasoni has a membership of 4,675. Of this population, 3,973 live on-Reserve, and 667 live of ...

, Little Bras d'Or, St. Peter's, and Whycocomagh. Shoreline is under the jurisdiction of the

Cape Breton Regional Municipality Cape Breton Regional Municipality (often referred to as simply "CBRM") is the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia's second largest municipality and the economic heart of Cape Breton Island. As of 2021 the municipa ...

and the county municipalities of

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, and

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

. Sailboat racing is a long tradition in the Bras d'Or, with events hosted by the Bras d'Or Yacht Club Today most economic activity around the lake is related to the services in the

tertiary sector of the economy The tertiary sector of the economy, generally known as the service sector, is the third of the three economic sectors in the three-sector model (also known as the economic cycle). The others are the primary sector (raw materials) and the seco ...

Gallery

Bras d'Or Lakes.jpg, Marble Mountain in early summer Great Bras d'Or (Seal Island) Bridge (cropped).jpg, Ocean-going ships enter and exit the Bras d'Or Lake system via Great Bras d'Or, spanned by the Seal Island Bridge ISteameronBrasDorLakeNearNewCampbelltonCa1900.jpg, Passenger steamer on Bras d'Or Lake near New Campbellton, ca 1903. 20090726 East Bay Regatta 0088.jpg, The East Bay Regatta, held the last weekend in July since 1984, features races and other social events. As many as 40 boats participate.

References

External links