Hecate Strait (;

Haida language Haida (', ', ', ') is the language of the Haida people, spoken in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of western Canada and on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska. An endangered language, Haida currently has 24 native speakers, though revit ...

: ''K̲andaliig̲wii'', also ''siigaay'' which means simply "ocean") is a wide but shallow

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

between

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; / , literally "Islands of the Haida people"), previously known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, is an archipelago located between off the British Columbia Coast, northern Pacific coast in the Canadian province of British Columbia ...

and the mainland of

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

, Canada. It merges with Queen Charlotte Sound to the south and Dixon Entrance to the north. About wide at its southern end, Hecate Strait narrows in the north to about . It is about in length.

Definition

According to the BCGNIS, the southern boundary of Hecate Strait is defined as a line running from the southernmost point of Price Island to Cape St James on Kunghit Island, the southernmost point of Haida Gwaii. The northern boundary is a line from Rose Point, the northeastern tip of Graham Island, to Hooper Point at the north end of Stephens Island off the mainland.

History

Because it is so shallow, Hecate Strait is especially susceptible to storms and violent weather. The Haida of Haida Gwaii crossed the Hecate Strait to the mainland to plunder coastal villages to take slaves and booty. Sometimes mainland First Nations crossed Hecate Strait to Haida Gwaii, such as a

Nisga'a The Nisga’a (; ), formerly spelled Nishga or Niska, are an Indigenous people in British Columbia, Canada. They reside in the Nass River valley of northwestern British Columbia. The origin of the term ''Niska'' is uncertain. The spelling ' ...

war party from the lower Nass River, which crossed the strait in a retaliatory raid after an attack by Haida Ravens from

Hiellen Hiellen, anglicized from the Haida name , and also spelled in various ways such as Hliiyalang ( Bringhurst) and Łi'elᴀñ ( Swanton), was a historic Haida village located on the northern shore of Graham Island, at the mouth of the Hiellen R ...

, which took Nisga'a slaves back to Hiellen. The inhabitants of Hiellen, fearing a Nisga'a retaliation, took refuge in Masset. The Nisga'a found Hiellen abandoned and burned it to the ground. Haida from Masset counterattacked, resulting in a long battle at Hiellen and nearby Taaw Tldáaw. The Nisga'a survivors crossed Hecate Strait again to return home. The Strait was first explored for the europeans in 1792 by the spanish Armada explorer Jacinto Caamaño. Hecate Strait was named by Captain George Henry Richards in 1861 or 1862 after his surveying vessel, HMS ''Hecate''.

Geology

During the last ice age, the seafloor in this area was a wide coastal plain stretching south to the

Olympic Peninsula The Olympic Peninsula is a large peninsula in Western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, and contains Olympic National Park. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the ...

and including what is now Queen Charlotte Sound.

Flora and fauna

The strait once contained strong

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

and

halibut Halibut is the common name for three species of flatfish in the family of right-eye flounders. In some regions, and less commonly, other species of large flatfish are also referred to as halibut. The word is derived from ''haly'' (holy) and ...

fisheries Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life or, more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a., fishing grounds). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farm ...

. Hecate Strait is one of the few locations in the world with species from the

glass sponge Hexactinellid sponges are sponges with a skeleton made of four- and/or six-pointed silica, siliceous spicule (sponge), spicules, often referred to as glass sponges. They are usually biological classification, classified along with other sponges i ...

class of fauna. Regions with these sponge are currently protected from damage by commercial fishing. The Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound Glass Sponge Reefs Marine Protected Area was designated by the Fisheries and Oceans Canada in February 2017. The MPA is located in the Northern Shelf bioregion of the Pacific Region, southeast of

, North and South of the entrance to the Douglas Channel. The MPA is composed of three individual areas known as the Northern Reef, the Central Reefs, and the Southern Reef. Together these three areas cover approximately 2,410 square kilometers. The four reef complexes in the Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound discontinuously cover an area of about 1,000 km², and are located in glacial troughs between 140 m and 240 m deep.

References

{{British Columbia hydrography Straits of British Columbia North Coast of British Columbia