Whose tide is highest? Canadian towns battle it out over Guinness World Record title

Burntcoat Head Park before, top, and after the tide goes out. Photograph: Burntcoat Head Park

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.