Eastern Pacific High Sea

The eastern Pacific off the mouth of the Columbia is swept by the southward-flowing California Current, which carries cool water far beyond the continental shelf. In 1792 the American captain Robert Gray approached this coast in the #italic Columbia Rediviva#! and found a way across the treacherous bar into the river's estuary. The river was named for his ship, though its waters and fisheries were already well known to the peoples living along it.