Deception Lake
Shelburne, Nova Scotia265 haView mapDirections
NSECC publishes the water-quality measurements for Deception Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- 23 ft max depth
- Limited data
Deception Lake in Shelburne, Nova Scotia has water-quality measurements published by NSECC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1 m visibility. Maximum depth: 23 ft. Surface area: 655.1 acres.
Deception Lake is a 655-acre lake in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia with a maximum depth of 23 feet (6-foot average).
Source: Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change — not the EPA Water Quality Portal, last sampled 1980-07-21. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Swimming conditions
No readingLimited data
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Deception Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Deception Lake
These are the measurements NSECC publishes for Deception Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Very murky, less than 3.1 ft of visibility. TSI 61.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 0.95m | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | No reading The nutrient that most limits algae growth in freshwater. More phosphorus, more algae potential. | |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | No reading The green pigment in algae — a direct measure of how much algae is in the water. | |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 61 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
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Lake Details
Max depth
7 m
Average depth
1.9 m
Surface area
265 ha
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Frequently asked questions about Deception Lake
Where is Deception Lake?
- Deception Lake is a lake in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Its water-quality measurements are published by NSECC and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Deception Lake?
- Deception Lake in Shelburne, Nova Scotia has water-quality measurements published by NSECC, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 1 m visibility. Maximum depth: 23 ft. Surface area: 655.1 acres.
Is Deception Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Deception Lake?
- Deception Lake has a maximum depth of 23 feet and an average depth of 6.2 feet. The lake covers 655.1 acres.
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Where this data comes from
1 measurement from 1 monitoring station, 1980. Retrieved from Nova Scotia open data (not the EPA Water Quality Portal) on 2026-08-16.
Collected and reported by
- Lands and Forests
Lands and Forests1 sample · 1980
Monitoring station identifiers (1)
986
Canadian lakes are published with the measurements their provincial programme reports. See where the data comes from and data sources.