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 environm ...

in the centre of

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (french: link=no, île du Cap-Breton, formerly '; gd, Ceap Breatainn or '; mic, Unamaꞌki) is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18. ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...

, 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 estuari ...

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 is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

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. It meant ''farmer'', and is cognate with ''laborer''. An error of

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

, the name is spelt to resemble the

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...

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

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

. 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 arms 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 the East Bay. It sits in 3,500 square kilometer

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where 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 ''droimnín'' ("littlest 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 unconsolidate ...

field. Steep hills rise abruptly on the northwestern side, to the Cape Breton Highlands. 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 (d ...

, Baddeck, and

Georges Georges may refer to: Places *Georges River, New South Wales, Australia *Georges Quay (Dublin) * Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania Other uses * Georges (name) * ''Georges'' (novel), a novel by Alexandre Dumas * "Georges" (song), a 19 ...

Rivers all empty into the lake. The lake water has lower

salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of 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 dimensionless and equal ...

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. The southern tip of the lake is connected to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

via the St. Peters Canal, 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 and the rotation of Earth. Tidal range depends on time and location. ...

. Seaweed populations resemble those found in the

Gulf of St. Lawrence The Gulf of St. Lawrence () is the outlet of the North American Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence River into the Atlantic Ocean. The gulf is a semi-enclosed sea, covering an area of about and containing about of water, at an average depth of . ...

. The warm waters are suitable for eastern oyster. Fish species include the blackspotted stickleback, white hake, blueback herring, Greenland cod, and introduced

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coast ...

. 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 Al ...

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 nich ...

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 America and Central America, as well as the Caribbean and the Galápagos ...

Human history

Mi'kmaq peoples have lived in the area for the last 4,000 years. Named Unama'ki in their language, it is the fire (or capital district) of their country, Mi'kma'ki, part of the greater

Wabanaki Confederacy The Wabanaki Confederacy (''Wabenaki, Wobanaki'', translated to "People of the Dawn" or "Easterner") is a North American First Nations in Canada, First Nations and Native Americans in the United States, Native American confederation of four prin ...

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 inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...

built an estate Beinn Bhreagh 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 or lighter-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. ...

s, airplanes and hydrofoil boats. Most of the shore is undeveloped, but settlements include Baddeck,

Eskasoni The Eskasoni Mi'kmaw Nation is a band government of the Mi'kmaq Nation, 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 off-Reserve. ...

, Little Bras d'Or, St. Peter's, and

Whycocomagh Whycocomagh (''Why-cog-ho-mah''), is an unincorporated area on the eastern edge of the Municipality of the County of Inverness, Nova Scotia, Canada. The population in 2001 was 854. The name derives from the Mi'kmaq language and relates to being n ...

. Shoreline is under the jurisdiction of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and the county municipalities of Inverness, Victoria, and Richmond. 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 second ...

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