Everything about The British Columbia Coast totally explained
The
British Columbia Coast is one of Canada's two continental coastlines; the other being the coastline from the
Beaufort Sea of the
Arctic Ocean via the
Northwest Passage and
Hudson Bay to the
Ungava Peninsula and
Labrador and the
Gulf of St. Lawrence to the
Bay of Fundy to the international border of
New Brunswick and
Maine at
Passamaquoddy Bay.
The British Columbia Coast is a
temperate rain forest, within the
Pacific temperate rain forest region.
In a sense excluding the urban
Lower Mainland area adjacent to the
American border, which is considered "The Coast," the British Columbia Coast refers to one of BC's three main regions, the others being the
Lower Mainland and
The Interior. In the Interior, "down on the Coast" generally refers, however, to being in the Lower Mainland or Greater Victoria, while "out on the Coast" could mean in Prince Rupert or Port Hardy, on the North Coast and northern Vancouver Island respectively, which are only some of the vast coastal region's many distinct subareas.
Although fully totalling 965 km in aerial-distance length from
Victoria on the
Strait of Juan de Fuca to
Stewart, British Columbia on the
Alaska border at the head of the
Portland Canal, its aerial length is usually considered as the 840 km that from the
49th Parallel in the
Strait of Georgia to 54'40", which is the southern limit of the
Alaska Panhandle (see
Oregon boundary dispute).
However, because of its many deep inlets and complicated island shorelines - and 40,000 islands of varying sizes, including
Vancouver Island and the
Queen Charlotte Islands (
Haida Gwaii), the total length of the British Columbia Coast is 25,000 km - much longer than the entire rest of the Canadian coastline at 20,000 km, even including the island of
Newfoundland and the
Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
The coastline's geography is most comparable to that of
Norway and its heavily-indented coastline of
fjords. The inland straits, the
Strait of Georgia in particular, share coastal affinities with the semi-inland waters of
Oslofjord and its shoreline archipelago and similarly with the waters around
Trondheimsfjord farther north. North from there the mainland coast resembles the great fjords of
Geirangerfjord,
Hardangerfjord,
Sognefjord and the rest of the western and northern Norwegian coastline.
Major inlets
The great
fjords of the British Columbia Coast rival those of
Norway in length and depth, but have even higher mountain scenery with a more alpine flavour. Many of the mountains offshore are much larger than those along the Norwegian coast, many large enough to have major fjords of their own, as well as their own mountain ranges. This is also of course even more true of the very large islands farther offshore,
Vancouver Island and
Graham and
Moresby Islands in the
Queen Charlottes, which together form the
Insular Mountains, distinct from the
Coast Mountains of the mainland.
Here are the most important
fjords, including those which are important in some way for reasons other than their size, listed south to north:
The many fjord-like waterways between the coast and the islands, and within the archipelago, can't be fully listed, and there are many more others which are not so much fjord-like as flooded valleys between what had been mountain peaks many thousands of years ago, when the shoreline was lower.
Major waterways
The waterway route through these islands between Vancouver and Prince Rupert, and between Seattle and Alaska, is known as the
Inside Passage. It has played a role in
U.S.-Canada relations more than once, from the
Klondike Gold Rush to the
Salmon War of the
1990s.
Major and important waterways are:
Georgia Strait (aka Gulf of Georgia)
Sutil Channel
Desolation Sound
Johnstone Strait
Discovery Passage
Sutlej Channel
Tribune Channel
Queen Charlotte Strait
Grenville Channel
Queen Charlotte Sound
Hecate Strait
Dixon Entrance
On Vancouver Island:
Alberni Inlet
Saanich Inlet
Clayoquot Sound
Barclay Sound
Kyuquot Sound
Nootka Sound
Quatsino Sound
Major islands
Vancouver Island
Queen Charlotte Islands
Porcher Island
Pitt Island
McCauley Island
Banks Island
Gil Island (Douglas Channel)
Gribbell Island (Douglas Channel)
Hawkesbury Island (Douglas Channel)
Princess Royal Island
Aristazabal Island
Price Island
Swindle Island
Campbell Island (village of Waglisla)
Denny Island (village of Bella Bella)
Hunter Island
King Island (Dean Channel)
Calvert Island
Caamano Island
Malcolm Island (Sointula)
Broughton Archipelago
Gilford Island Knight Inlet
West/East Cracroft Islands Knight Inlet
Hardwicke Island Johnstone Strait
Discovery Islands
Northern Gulf Islands:
The above list ends at the northern Strait of Georgia, the last several forming a group known as the northern Gulf Islands. The southern Gulf Islands are as follows:
Gabriola Island
Valdes Island
Thetis Island
Kuiper Island
Saltspring Island
Prevost Island
Galiano Island
Mayne Island
North Pender Island
South Pender Island
Saturna Island
Sidney Island
James Island
The Gulf Islands continue southeast across the Haro Straits as the San Juan Islands. See also Puget Sound.
The islands of Howe Sound are classed among the southern Gulf Islands but they adjoin the mainland rather than Vancouver Island and are usually considered separately. They are:
Bowen Island
Gambier Island
Anvil Island (Hat Island)
Keats island
Bowyer Island
The islands of the Fraser River estuary are:
Barnston Island (unincorporated agricultural community)
Lulu Island (City of Richmond)
Sea Island (YVR Vancouver Airport)
Westham Island (wildfowl refuge)
Iona Island (Vancouver sewage treatment plant)
Deas Island (Hwy 99 tunnel beneath the Fraser)
Annacis Island
History
Research from the 1990s has indicated that the Ice Age-era coastline of the British Columbia Coast was much lower - by 100 m. The effect of such a waterlevel on the coastline was such that the Queen Charlotte Strait, which is between Haida Gwaii and the northern end of Vancouver Island, was a coastal plain, as were all the straits inland from it - except for those that were mountain valleys. Underwater archaeology has shown the presence of permanent human habitation and other activity at the 100m contour, and the Ice Age existence of such a coastal plain has put a new light on Ice Age populations in North America as well as on the strong likelihood of this area having been the major migration route from (and perhaps to) Asia.
The heavy indentation and mild climate of the BC Coast have led to inevitable comparisons with the geography's predisposition to encouraging increased human settlement and movement as well as cultural foment and population growth in the Aegean, the Irish Sea/Hebrides and in the Danish Archipelago and adjoining Scandinavian coasts. The natural fecundity of the environment - rich in seafood, game and greenery - combined with the ease of travel (by water) - is seen in all cases (BC, Denmark, Greece) to have generated a dynamic and gifted civilization. And there are comparisons to be made between the artistic and political and social level of the Pacific Northwest Peoples and those of pre-Conversion pagan Scandinavia, Ireland and Archaic-Era Greece.
Fishery
The fishery of the Pacific Northwest Coast is legendary, especially for its many salmon runs and the cultures that built on top of them throughout the region. Salmon runs have greatly diminished since pre-Contact years and the adventu of commercial canning and, ultimately, depletion of stocks by high-seas fishing. Inroads by salmon farming are held to jeopardize the remaining wild stocks.
Other commercial fisheries include halibut, herring and herring roe, sea urchin and other specialty sushis, hake, haddock, cod, crab and shellfish.
Shipping, ferries, and sailing
Scheduled Passenger Services operating on the British Columbia Coast are dominated by BC Ferries and Alaska State Ferries.
Alaska State Ferries operates regular sailings from Bellingham (or Seattle) to Ketchikan, Wrangell, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Haines and lesser ports-of-call in the Alaska Panhandle. Alaska State Ferries also operates a vessel from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan and other Panhandle ports.
BC Ferries, a privately-managed Crown Corporation, operates major daily sailings between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island via three routes - Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay, Tsawwassen, British Columbia to Swartz Bay, British Columbia, and Duke Point, British Columbia to Tsawwassen. Dozens of smaller ferries ply lesser routes between the Gulf Islands and the mainland or the "Big Island" as well as on various lakes in the Interior where bridges are not an option are have not yet been built. Other runs connect Horseshoe Bay to the Sunshine Coast and Bowen Island and the lower Sunshine Coast to the Powell River section of that coast farther northwest. From there a ferry operates to Comox.
BC Ferries also operates a sailing from Prince Rupert to Masset on Haida Gwaii as well as a major Inside Passage routing from Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert and, in summer season, from Port Hardy to Bella Coola via several smaller coastal communities in between.
Other scheduled passenger services are run by various small shipping and watertaxi companies.
Non-scheduled passenger services include all major cruise lines and various small luxury craft harters, as well as shuttles to and from the various coastal resorts.
Coastal communities
North Coast
Central Coast
Northern Vancouver Island-Queen Charlotte Strait
Sunshine Coast
Northern Gulf Islands:
Vancouver Island - Strait of Georgia
Vancouver Island West Coast
Greater Victoria
Southern Gulf Islands
Greater Vancouver
Puget Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca
Alaska Panhandle
Resorts and fishing lodges
Yellow Point Lodge, Nanaimo
Painter's Lodge, Desolation Sound
Coastal First Nations
Nations of the Alaska Panhandle and Georgia Strait-Puget Sound are included as they're part of the same cultural and historical ecumene.
T'sou-ke Nation
Songhees (Esquimalt-Victoria)
Tsartlip (Saanich Peninsula)
Lummi (Whatcom County)
Noxws'a7aq (Nooksack people, Whatcom County)
Twana
Suguamish
Tsawwassen people
- includes Musqueam, Tseil-wau-tuth (Burrard) and Tsawwassen First Nations.
Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish people, Squamish and North Vancouver
Shishalh -- Sechelt and lower Sunshine Coast
Homalhco (Toba Inlet)
Sliammon (Malaspina Peninsula/pper Sunshine Coast)
Nuu-chah-nulth (West Coast Vancouver Island)
Cowichan peoples
Kwakwaka'wakw Johnstone Strait - Queen Charlotte Strait
Heiltsuk
Wuikinuxv (aka Owekeeno people, Rivers Inlet)
Haisla
Nuxálk (Bella Coola and King Island)
Tsimshian
Haida
Nisga'a
Tlingit
Provincial and Federal Parks and Preserves
Environmental issues
Environmental hotspots
Vancouver Island
Georgia Strait-Johnstone Strait
Puget Sound-Strait of Juan de Fuca
Central Coast
North Coast
Further Information
Get more info on 'British Columbia Coast'.
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