Tide tables published by the Canadian Hydrographic Service can be purchased or local islanders can be consulted. If you are in doubt, be on the safe side and do not leave your vehicle on the beach or cross an area you may not be able to get back over when the tide comes in. Remember tide and time wait for no one . The great tidal pump in the Bay is responsible for an abundant marine life including plankton, invertebrates, fish, whales, dolphins, porpoises and seals and seabirds. Beech, oak, and pine were common when settlers arrived in the late 1700's but logging and fires changed the predominant species to spruce, fir, tamarack or larch, birch and maple.
Bogs are common complete with cedars, orchids and insectivorous plants.
The fauna on the islands has a long history of introductions from mammals to reptiles to amphibians. In exposed areas such as Southern Head, trees are twisted from the wind. John James Audubon, the great naturalist and painter, visited White Head Island in May of 1833. His glowing reports of the abundant bird life inspired a steady stream of visiting naturalists that continues to this day. Currently, almost 363 species of birds have been recorded from the Grand Manan Archipelago, of which an average of 250 are seen on an annual basis, while half that number regularly breed here.