New London Bay ... the Waterways of Stanley Bridge, PEI .. What You May Not Have Known.

New London Bay, Stanley Bridge on PEI's North Shore

On a number of occasions, we've had the opportunity to cruise New London Bay by the house with friends. David has a splendid SeaRay boat for running about the river system and beyond, and cousin Leith has a converted 40' lobster boat with room that begs for groups and Bar-B-Qs.

Contributing Watersheds

New London Bay is an interesting waterbody .... with quite a range of water depths for captains to navigate and at least 17 watersheds and contributing tributaries. ( From Watershed map ... PDF http://www.gov.pe.ca/....) Regarding mapping, the PEI governement conveniently provides various CAD files of the island geography and infrastructure here, and I must say, the PEI gov does a good job on information available via the net... Click maps below to enlarge...

At least 17 waterbody/watersheds contribute to the waters of New London Bay

New London Bay in Context with PEI

These Waterbodies are overseen by community groups - three in particular affect New London Bay.

• Kensington North Watershed Association
• Trout River Environmental Committee, and
• Hunter Clyde Watershed Group (in part)

Each of those groups above is a member of The PEI Watershed Alliance where this map originated :

Aquaculture

Another necessary observation for navigators are the numerous shellfish leases on the bay. While the number and location change with time, the surface area remains a significant portion of the total New London Bay surface area. The following two images show shellfish leases in New London Bay, Stanley Bridge, PEI, 2013 (mussels, oysters).




Shellfish Leases (click each to enlarge)

http://www2.glf.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/ao-bl/pei-ipe/leasing-baux/maps-cartes-e.php



With digital support from provincial files, the following highlights rivers, creeks, and aquaculture in New London Bay, PEI. Note total areas determined from Vectorworks program on macbook. The Aquaculture leases occupy just under 20% of the waterways in New London Bay, Stanley Bridge, PEI - including tributaries. New London Bay, including tributary rivers, is roughly 25 km sq. in surface area (17 sq.km. for Bay itself)

New London Bay and Associated Feed Water Courses.

Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development, PEI Technical Reports found at : http://www.gov.pe.ca/fard/index.php3?number=79751


Tidal Activity 
In addition to aqua farming obstacles, boaters pay heed to the tides that affect passage to the open seas and to the river systems. Fortunately, the high to low tides are not extreme, and most often don't
 exceed a 0.75 m difference in height.  (Update : Dec. 03, 2013 Low Tide 0.1m, High Tide 1.14m. - subscriptions found at : http://tides.mobilegeographics.com/locations/4242.html  Fisheries and Oceans Canada also has tide tables http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/eng/data/table/2014/wlev_ref/1915

Water Depths and Temperatures

A typical concern on Prince Edward Island (PEI) is the frequency and amount of siltation of the inner bays, carried in from the outer seas.  The Cavendish sand dunes are under constant attack when storms arise - the sands shift and are moved inland as well as out to sea.  A few links on dunes and losses :

• Environment : Sand Dunes and Beaches  (PEI Govt)
• P.E.I. National Park lost dunes in storm CBC - Dec 30, 2010

With the changing sand profiles, water depths change.  It is difficult to find information on the bathymetry (depth profile) of New London Bay in Prince Edward Island.  One source found was a paper from 1993 entitled : Oceanographic, Geographic, And Hydrological Parameters Of Scotia-Fundy and Southern Gulf Of St. Lawrence Inlets (link to Fisheries and Oceans Canada www site) The map and details from that report are shown below (color added by SteveinPEI).




Update :  Recently found more accurate depictions of the same data at DFO's CEICE site.  Fm= Fathoms (1 Fathom=6 feet)

More detailed depth information in the bay is not readily available - from 1955 the mapping from Canadian Hydrographic Service in New London Bay is shown below in Low Resolution.  The maps (paper, digital) are copyright and available at prior link (technically, displaying the Low Res image below is against the copyright - but it is not useful at that resolution : please consult the above link for mapping !).  NOTE : cannot be relied upon for current depths due to shifting sands - especially at bay opening.

Suffice it to say that boaters can expect to find parts of channels as shallow as four feet (4'.)  Certainly, large keel boats should NOT entertain a visit to Stanley Bridge !

At the wharf, depths can reach 16 to 20ft in the channel, adjacent to knee deep shorelines at 100 feet from shore.  Depths in other areas, crossing from the Stanley River side to the Southwest River side, can reduce to four feet (4'.)   Other information found in the link above related to New London Bay and it's waterways is the following graphic noting tidal volumes and area geometries :



Finally, with the shallow depths found in New London Bay, Prince Edward Island (PEI), water temperatures can get elevated.  One source of information is from provincial Mussel monitoring operations.....

PEI Department of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Rural Development monitoring programs.

In the technical reports link above (PEI Gov. site), temperature monitoring occurs as part of the research and we see water temperatures reaching 25°C in August 2012 at the monitoring site.  While that temperature is found in the shallower areas, and will likely be warmer than deeper bay waters, these are warm waters indeed !

Sunny days and fabulous boating conditions to you.

Stay tuned.


cheers
SteveinPEI