Georgia Strait

Between Vancouver Island and the mainland lies the broad Strait of Georgia, an inland sea bordered by islands and threaded with narrow channels. Indigenous communities have lived along its shores for thousands of years, traveling through waters connected southward to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The Fraser River reaches the sea on its eastern shore.

In 1791 José María Narváez sailed into the strait as part of a Spanish expedition under Francisco de Eliza, following the eastern coast of Vancouver Island and crossing toward the mainland. The Spaniards gave the waterway a religious name. The next year George Vancouver called it the Gulf of Georgia in honor of King George III, applying the name to a wider expanse of inland waters.