Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site of Canada

Dark Waters

Approximately 12 percent of Kejimkujik National Park consists of fresh water. The dark waters of these lakes and rivers have an intriguing story to tell.

A lake edge featuring dark-coloured water
© Parks Canada

Most of the water in the Park comes from run-off. Our rocks, slate, quartzite and granite, are hard and unyielding. This means that our waterways have few natural minerals. With so few nutrients, the productivity, or ability of our waters to support life, is very poor.

Kejimkujik lies within a zone of bedrock that has been deemed very sensitive to the deposition of acidity. Calcium concentrations in surface waters are among the lowest in the world. The waters in Kejimkujik were acidic in nature before the addition of sulphates from acid rain, with the coloured lakes being more acidic than the clear water lakes. Visit our research section for more information about our acidic waters.

Since 1980, the average yearly pH of our rainfall has ranged between 4.4 and 4.71. This is many times more acidic than the accepted average pH of 5.6 of clean rainfall.

Canadian Wildlife Service researchers have learned how acidity affects the distribution of fish species within Kejimkujik. In our most acidic lakes, with pH 4.1, only yellow perch and eels are found. Brook trout and white perch are not found in lakes with a pH of less than 4.7.

Wildlife | The Flora | Waters | Research