Northumberland Strait

Northumberland Strait separates Prince Edward Island from the neighboring mainland of northeastern Canada. Its relatively sheltered waters, tidal shores, and estuaries supplied fish, shellfish, and routes between coastal places. Mi'kmaq communities used the sea alongside inland resources, maintaining seasonal movements and relationships across the wider Gulf of St Lawrence. Boats connected shores that later political boundaries would describe as separate provinces.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, French settlement established Acadian farming and fishing communities around the region, creating new exchanges and pressures within an existing Indigenous landscape. British and French imperial rivalry brought warfare, displacement, and changes in sovereignty. The deportation of Acadian communities had profound consequences for the mainland shores, while later British settlement and administration reorganized landholding and commerce. Coastal shipping remained important to food supply, migration, and local markets throughout these changes.