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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 Nova Scotia.

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 Straight 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 (now properly known as Haida Gwaii, Land of the Haida), 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, even including the island of Newfoundland and the 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, cannot 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:

On Vancouver Island:

Major 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:

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:

The islands of the Fraser River estuary are:

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 Ferriesalso operates a sailing from Prince Rupert to Masset on Haida Gwaii as well as a major Inside Passage routing from Kelsey Bay on northern Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert and, in summer season, from Kelsey Bay 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

Resorts and fishing lodges

Coastal First Nations

Nations of the Alaska Panhandle and Georgia Strait-Puget Sound are included as they are part of the same cultural and historical ecumene.

Provincial and Federal Parks and Preserves

Environmental issues

Environmental hotspots

See also

Geography of British Columbia | Geography of Canada

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "British Columbia Coast".

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