From its early days as a major shipbuilding centre to the current-day mussel fishery, the Three Rivers has always provided Islanders with a strong sense of identity that will forever link them to their landscape. The ebb and flow of its tide has created a beautiful blend of habitats where shorebirds and colonial nesting birds flourish. The Three Rivers watershed includes the freshwater basins and tidal estuaries of the Cardigan, Brudenell and Montague Rivers. Totaling only 74 kilometres, each finger-like corridor begins as a trickle and then flows southeasterly, gaining momentum as they empty into Cardigan Bay at the Northumberland Strait.