The Bras d ’Or Lake and its watershed is a designated entity under the UNESCO umbrella “Man and the Biosphere Reserve” program that focus on the areas residents having achieved an existing and working balance between the economics of humans and nature. The Bras d’Or Lake estuary and its associated watershed have long been recognized by marine scientists for its unique ecosystem and vast potential as a living laboratory. The Bras d ’Or Lake is a body of brackish water more than 1,200 square kilometers in size that is largely unpolluted, sheltered from major storms, convenient for scientific research, and already well understood in terms of its principal aquatic and terrestrial properties.