New website promotes coastal tourism

With details about berthage fees, GPS locations, shops, restaurants, and accommodations around Nova Scotia’s 255 public wharves, it provides information visitors need to tour Nova Scotia’s coastline.

A message on the site notes that some wharves and harbours may remain to be entered—and that appears to include Digby. While the town is mentioned, information is provided only for communities on Digby Neck and Islands and along the Clare Shore.

A check with Coastal Communities Network elicited the answer that “a few glitches…caused some wharves to vanish off into cyberspace. Digby will be back online very soon!”

The information can be viewed at www.coastalcommunities.ns.ca by clicking on the Close to the Coast icon.

Network chair Wendy Robichaud says the new site is a great resource for boaters who want to tour the coastline, whether for a day sail or a longer jaunt, but also provides necessary information for a trip by bicycle, kayak or car.

There are detailed clickable maps, aerial photographs provided by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and lighthouse photos and information from the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society.

In development over the past year, Close to the Coast has already attracted thousands and thousands of web browsers from across North America and around the world.