Douglas Channel | |
---|---|
Location | British Columbia, Canada |
Coordinates | 53°40′N129°08′W / 53.667°N 129.133°W |
Type | Fjord |
Ocean/sea sources | Pacific Ocean |
Douglas Channel [1] is one of the principal inlets (or fjords) of the British Columbia Coast, into which the Kitimat River flows. The channel was named in honour of Sir James Douglas, the first governor of the Colony of British Columbia. [2] The official length, from the head of Kitimat Arm and the aluminum smelter town of Kitimat to Wright Sound (on the Inside Passage ferry route), is 90 km (56 mi). The full length of the fjord's waterways includes waters between Kitimat and the open waters of the Hecate Strait, outside of the coastal archipelago, stretching for another 60 km (37 mi), reaching 140 km (87 mi) in-total.
A major side-inlet, the Gardner Canal, is 90 km (56 mi) in length, accessible from the Kitimat Arm of the Douglas Channel via Devastation Channel (20 km, 12 mi), on the east side of Hawkesbury Island. South of Hawkesbury is Verney Passage (40 km, 25 mi), which has a side-channel called Ursula Passage (30 km, 19 mi). Total length of the fjord waterway dominated by Douglas Channel is therefore (not counting smaller side-inlets) roughly 320 km (200 mi), considerably longer than Norway's Sognefjord (203 km, 126 mi) orGreenland's Scoresby Sound at 350 km (220 mi), though not as long as nearby Dean Channel's total of 335 km (208 mi).
Douglas Channel is a busy shipping artery because of the methanol import terminal (formerly methanol production and export) and the aluminum smelter at Kitimat, as bauxite must be shipped in and smelted aluminum shipped out. Expansions of the Port of Kitimat have increased the port capacity of the British Columbia's North Coast and decreased the shipping monopoly of the nearby city, Prince Rupert. [3]
The methanol production and export plant closed in 2006. [4]
Douglas Channel will be subject to new sensitive ship traffic when the LNG Canada natural gas storage and liquefaction terminal is completed and operational, which is estimated to be in 2025. The project, led by an liquefied natural gas (LNG) subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell and several Asian partners and finally approved on October 1, 2018, will see large LNG carrier ships loading liquefied natural gas at the future Kitimat LNG terminal, to carry it to export destinations, mainly in Asia.
The Gardner Canal is important for being the location of the Kemano Generating Station of the Nechako Diversion, which was built to supply power for Kitimat. The head of the Gardner Canal, also, is the mouth of the Kitlope River, a major wildlife and wilderness preserve and area of outstanding natural beauty and harsh weather.
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A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced by itself or from nearby platforms or subsea template, process them, and store oil until it can be offloaded onto a tanker or, less frequently, transported through a pipeline. FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil is referred to as a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.
Portland Canal is an arm of Portland Inlet, one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is approximately 114 km (71 mi) long. The Portland Canal forms part of the border between southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The name of the entire inlet in the Nisga'a language is Kʼalii Xkʼalaan, with xkʼalaan meaning "at the back of (someplace)". The upper end of the inlet was home to the Tsetsaut, who after being decimated by war and disease were taken under the protection of the Laxsgiik (Eagle) chief of the Nisga'a, who holds the inlet's title in native law.
Kitimat is a district municipality in the North Coast region of British Columbia, Canada. It is a member municipality of the Regional District of Kitimat–Stikine regional government. The Kitimat Valley is part of the most populous urban district in northwest British Columbia, which includes Terrace to the north along the Skeena River Valley. The city was planned and built by the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) during the 1950s. Its post office was approved on 6 June 1952.
The British Columbia Coast, popularly referred to as the BC Coast or simply the Coast, is a geographic region of the Canadian province of British Columbia. As the entire western continental coastline of Canada along the Pacific Ocean is in the province, it is synonymous with being the West Coast of Canada.
Bute Inlet is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is 80 km (50 mi) long from the estuaries of the Homathko and Southgate Rivers at the head of the inlet, to the mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island, and it averages about 4 km (2.5 mi) in width. Bute Inlet is in a spectacular wilderness setting and is one of the most scenic waterways in the world. In the upper reaches of the inlet mountains rise 2,700 m (9,000 ft) feet above sea level. Bute Inlet is a spectacular wilderness that is visited by very few people. In more recent years tourists are travelling from around the world to view grizzly bears in a natural setting and explore the wilderness of Bute Inlet.
Kingcome Inlet is one of the lesser principal fjords of the British Columbia Coast, north and east of Broughton Island. It is sixth in sequence of the major saltwater fjords north from the 49th parallel near Vancouver and similar in width, on average 2.5 km (1.6 mi), to longer inlets such as Knight Inlet and Bute Inlet, but it is only 35 km (22 mi) in length from the mouth of the Kingcome River to Sutlej Channel, which ultimately connects around Broughton Island to the main regional waterway of the Queen Charlotte Strait. Kingcome Inlet has a short side inlet, Wakeman Sound, fed by the Wakeman River.
Seymour Inlet is one of the lesser travelled of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. Unlike larger inlets such as Knight or Bute, it is not flanked by mountains but by relatively low, but still rugged, coastal hill-country and forms a maze of complex, narrow waterways and tidal pools and lagoons. It is located within a corresponding maze of peninsulas on the mainland on the northwest side of the Queen Charlotte Strait region.
Dean Channel is the upper end of one of the longest inlets of the British Columbia Coast, 105 km (65.2 mi) from its head at the mouth of the Kimsquit River. The Dean River, one of the main rivers of the Coast Mountains, enters Dean Channel about 9.5 km (5.9 mi) below the head of the inlet, at the community of Kimsquit.
The Gardner Canal is one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. Technically a side-inlet of the larger Douglas Channel, the Gardner Canal is still 90 km (56 mi) in length in its own right; total length of the waterways converging on the Douglas Channel is 320 km (200 mi) making it one of the largest fjord-complexes in the world.
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The Haisla Nation is the Indian Act-mandated band government which nominally represents the Haisla people in the North Coast region of the Canadian province of British Columbia, centred on the reserve community of Kitamaat Village. The traditional territory of the Haisla people is situated along the Douglas Channel Region of Kitimat on British Columbia’s north coast, and includes the Kitlope Valley which is rich in natural resources, especially salmon.
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The Kitimat River is a river in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It originates in the Kitimat Ranges, near the sources of the Dala River, Kemano River, Atna River, and Clore River. It flows in a curve north, then west, then south, emptying into Kitimat Arm at the head of Douglas Channel, at the town of Kitimat.
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Kiltuish River is a river in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It originates in the Kitimat Ranges, and flows about 25 km (16 mi) north to the Pacific Ocean at Kiltuish Inlet, an arm of the fjord Gardner Canal. The Kiltuish River is within the traditional territory of the Haisla people.
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