Petitcodiac River

The Petitcodiac River i/pɛtiˈkoʊdi.æk/, known informally as the Chocolate River, is a Canadian river in south-eastern New Brunswick. The river runs about 79 kilometres (49 miles) through the province's Westmorland, Albert, and Kings counties, draining a watershed area of about 2,071 square kilometres (800 sq mi). The region around the river features valleys, ridges, and rolling hills, and is home to a diverse population of terrestrial and aquatic species. Ten named tributaries join the river in its course toward its mouth in Shepody Bay. Before the construction of a causeway in 1968, the river had one of the world's largest tidal bores, which ranged from 1 to 2 metres (3.3–6.6 ft) in height and moved at 5 to 13 kilometres per hour (3.1–8.1 mph).

The Mi'kmaq were the first to settle near the river, and used it as part of a portage route between Shubenacadie and the village of Petitcodiac, where they had a winter camp. Acadians from Port Royal, Nova Scotia colonised the region in 1698, but were expelled in 1755 during the French and Indian War. Acadian resistance fighters in Village-des-Blanchard (now Hillsborough) fought under the command of French leader Charles Deschamps de Boishébert in the Battle of Petitcodiac to fend off British troops and suffered the destruction of most of their settlement. The British troops revisited the river three years later and conducted the Petitcodiac River Campaign. In the 1840s, the Greater Moncton area saw a shipbuilding boom, but this was halted following the arrival of the steam train, and forced the town to unincorporate. These changes eventually marginalised the Petitcodiac River.

In 1968, a controversial rock-and-earth fill causeway was built between Moncton and Riverview to prevent agricultural flooding and to carry a crossing between the two communities. The causeway caused many problems for the river and its surrounding ecosystem. An estimated 10 million cubic metres (13 million cubic yards) of silt was deposited in the 4.7 km (2.9 mi) of river downstream from the causeway in the first three years following construction. The causeway restricted the movement of fish and reduced the region's salmon catches by 82 percent. Water quality has also dropped thanks to industrial expansion around the area. In 2003, Earthwild International designated the Petitcodiac River as the most endangered river in Canada because of these problems. On April 14, 2010, the causeway's gates were opened permanently as part of a $68 million three-phase project designed to restore the river, to be completed by 2015.