Porcher Island
Island in British Columbia, Canada

Porcher Island
Native name:
K'paal
Oval Bay, Porcher Island
Interactive map of Porcher Island
Geography
LocationHecate Strait
Coordinates53°59′02″N 130°31′29″W / 53.98389°N 130.52472°W / 53.98389; -130.52472 (Porcher Island)
Area520 km2 (200 sq mi)
Coastline170 km (106 mi)
Highest elevation888.5 m (2915 ft)
Highest pointEgeria Mountain [1]
Administration
Canada
ProvinceBritish Columbia
Land DistrictRange 5 Coast Land District
Regional DistrictSkeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District
Demographics
Population37 (2006)
Pop. density0.071/km2 (0.184/sq mi)

Porcher Island (Tsimshian: K'paal) is an island in Hecate Strait, British Columbia, Canada, near the mouth of the Skeena River and southwest of the port city of Prince Rupert.[2] The locality of Porcher Island is located near the island's northern tip at Humpback Bay, 54°05′11″N 130°23′23″W / 54.08639°N 130.38972°W / 54.08639; -130.38972 (Porcher Island (locality)).[3][4] Stephens and Prescott Islands are located off its northwestern tip.[5][6]

Features

Gitxaała Nii Łuutiksm/Kitkatla Conservancy

The conservancy was designated 14 July 2006, it has an area of 29,539 ha (114.05 sq mi) and contains the Porcher Peninsula and most of the seaward islands.[7] The conservancy protects marine and terrestrial resources that have a history of use by First Nations peoples.[8]

Porcher Inlet

Extending North from Kikatla, the inlet nearly bisects the southern island[9], it is a long, narrow channel that intrudes 13.7 km (8.5 mi) into the interior, before emptying into a salt lagoon at the foot of the Spiller Range.

Oval Bay

On the island's western edge[10], features a 5 km (3.1 mi) sandy beach, which is exposed to the ferocious southeast gales that regularly sweep through Hecate Strait.

Spiller Range

At the northeast end of the island[11], and reaches an elevation of 727 metres (2,385 ft).[12]

Etymology

Named after Edwin Augustus Porcher, RN (1821–1878), who served as Commander of HMS Sparrowhawk at Esquimalt Naval Base, Vancouver Island, from the spring of 1865 until he returned to England in the fall of 1868. While serving with the North Pacific Squadron, Commander Porcher made four summertime voyages to the North Coast of British Columbia; in 1866, 1867 and twice in 1868. The route of the Inside Passage that the Sparrowhawk took from Esquimalt to the Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Fort Simpson (the Tsimshian village of Lax Kw'alaams) would have passed close by the island in Chatham Sound that now bears the Commander's name.[13]

Geography

With a land area of 200 sq mi (518 km2), Porcher Island is the eighth largest coastal island in British Columbia. The island's northern tip is 24 km (14.9 mi) southwest of the port city of Prince Rupert, and 70 km (43.5 mi) due south of the southernmost extension of the Alaska Panhandle. The island is located within the Range 5 Coast Land District[14] and the Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District. Porcher Island is bounded on the north by Chatham Sound and the Skeena River estuary, by Hecate Strait to the west and by Ogden Channel to the south. Metlakata Inlet and Kitkatla Channel separate Porcher's southern flank from the Goschen, Dolphin and Spicer Islands, near the entrance to Principe Channel.

The interior of the island is hilly, Egeria Mountain, southeast of Porcher Inlet, is the tallest reaching to 888 m (2,915 ft),[15] while the Bell Range dominates to the northwest.[16]

Geology

Porcher Island is underlain by the metamorphosed volcanic, volcaniclastic, and sedimentary rocks of the southern Alexander Terrane, which are intruded by ordovician plutons including the: Porcher Inlet, Hunt Inlet, McMicking, and Swede Point plutons.[17]

History

The Gitxaala have identified this island as part the laxyuup[18] (traditional territories and waters). [19]

The island's relative isolation, combined with wet, cool summers and severe winters, has discouraged many of those who sought to make Porcher Island their permanent home. After a brief influx of homesteaders, (in the wake of Prince Rupert being chosen as the terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1906) three settlements were established during the 20th century that still sustain inhabitants today. These settlements are to be found at Hunts Inlet (formerly Jap Inlet)[20][21] and at Humpback Bay,[22] both on the island's northernmost tip, and at Oona River, which flows into Ogden Channel at the island's eastern edge.[23][24]

Settlements

The island, together with some of its surrounding area, (excluding Kitkatla (Laxklan), a Tsimshian village, is situated on Dolphin Island) had a population of 37 in the Canada 2006 Census, down 26% from the 2001 census.[25]

Hunts Inlet

Hunts Inlet is a collection of older buildings grouped around a government dock, with the more recent addition of a number of vacation homes built by Prince Rupert residents.

Humback Bay

Gillnet Floats, Humpback Bay, Porcher Island, 1964

Humpback Bay is the site of the former Porcher Island Cannery, now derelict. The salmon cannery was originally built by the Chatham Sound Fishing and Packing Company in 1928, but operated for only four years before closing at the end of the 1932 salmon season. The site was later purchased by the Canadian Fishing Company and used as a summer gillnet station until 1968, when gillnet operations were transferred to North Pacific Cannery. Humpback Bay continued to serve as a net storage facility until the 1980s, when the Crown lease was sold to private interests.

Oona River

With 30 or so permanent residents, Oona River currently has the largest population of the three surviving Porcher Island settlements. Situated at the northern end of Ogden Channel, Oona River was originally settled by Scandinavian immigrants in the years before and after the First World War. The village has long been a source of wooden boats for the B.C. salmon fishing industry. Scores of these sturdy, seaworthy vessels were hand-built from red and yellow cedar by early settlers and their descendants, and some can still be seen in use today. The Oona River Salmon Enhancement Project, first established some 25 years ago, continues to rebuild threatened coho salmon stocks in the Porcher Island area.

Ecology

Porcher Island is part of the Hecate Lowland Ecosection, a once heavily glaciated band of narrow lowland rain forest and coastal archipelago that stretches from Portland Inlet in the north to Queen Charlotte Strait in the south.[26] Hecate Lowland terrain is generally rough and rocky, with wide areas of muskeg wetland and bog forest. Tree species include western red cedar, yellow cedar, mountain hemlock and fir. Salal, ferns, and skunk cabbage are commonly found undergrowth. Lowland climate in the Porcher Island region is dominated by frontal flows from Dixon Entrance, resulting in frequent wind storms and heavy rainfall.

Porcher Island Cannery

Waterfowl are found in abundance throughout the protected inlets and estuaries that notch Porcher Island's 100 mile coastline. Species include Merganser, Surfbird, Marbled Murrelet, Glaucous-winged gull, Northwest heron, Red-Throated Loon, Rhinoceros auklet, Greater white-fronted goose and Northern bald eagle.[27] Both Chatham Sound and Kitkatla Channel afford a profusion of breeding and nesting habitat for a wide variety of seabirds, and are essential components of the Pacific coast migratory flyway.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Porcher Island.
  • A history of Porcher Island Cannery

References

  1. ^ "Egeria Mountain". BC Geographical Names.
  2. ^ "Porcher Island". BC Geographical Names.
  3. ^ "Porcher Island". BC Geographical Names.
  4. ^ "Humpback Bay". BC Geographical Names.
  5. ^ "Stephens Island". BC Geographical Names.
  6. ^ "Prescott Island". BC Geographical Names.
  7. ^ "Gitxaala Nii Luutiksm/Kitkatla Conservancy". Geographical Names Data Base. Natural Resources Canada. Retrieved 2026-01-03.
  8. ^ "Gitxaala Nii Luutiksm/Kitkatla Conservancy". BC Geographical Names.
  9. ^ "Porcher Inlet". BC Geographical Names.
  10. ^ "Oval Bay". BC Geographical Names.
  11. ^ "Spiller Range". BC Geographical Names.
  12. ^ "Sailing Directions (Enroute) PAC 205: Inner Passage, British Columbia Coast, Southeast Alaska and Northern Inside Passage" (PDF). Canadian Hydrographic Service, Fisheries and Oceans Canada. December 2022. Retrieved 4 January 2026. the Spiller Range, on the NE side of the same island, reaches elevations of 727 m.
  13. ^ Barman, R. J.; Barman, J. (December 2001). "A Tour of Duty in the Pacific Northwest: E. A. Porcher and HMS Sparrowhawk, 1865–1868". BC Studies (132): 101.
  14. ^ "Porcher Island". BC Geographical Names.
  15. ^ "Egeria Mountain". BC Geographical Names.
  16. ^ "Bell Range". BC Geographical Names.
  17. ^ Nelson, J. L.; Mahoney, J. B.; Gehrels, G. E.; van Staal, C.; Potter, J. J. (2010). "Geology and Mineral Potential of Porcher Island, Northern Grenville Channel and Vicinity, Northwestern British Columbia" (PDF). B.C. Geological Survey Paper. 2010–01: 1–??. Retrieved 4 January 2026.
  18. ^ {Menzies, Charles R. (Autumn 2015). "Revisiting "Dm Sibilhaa'nm da Laxyuubm Gitxaała (Picking Abalone in Gitxaała Territory)": Vindication, Appropriation, and Archaeology". BC Studies. 187: 129–153. ISSN 0005-2949.
  19. ^ Marsden, Susan. THE GITKXAALA, THEIR HISTORY, AND THEIR TERRITORIES(PORCHER ISLAND, BANKS ISLAND, PITT ISLAND AND ADJACENT ISLANDS) (PDF) (Report). Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  20. ^ "Hunts Inlet". BC Geographical Names.
  21. ^ "Jap Inlet". BC Geographical Names.
  22. ^ "Porcher Island (locality)". BC Geographical Names.
  23. ^ "Oona River (locality)". BC Geographical Names.
  24. ^ "Oona River". BC Geographical Names.
  25. ^ Statistics Canada (2007-03-13). "Canada 2006 Census". Retrieved 2008-05-03.
  26. ^ Dennis A. Demarchi (March 2011). An Introduction to the Ecoregions of British Columbia (pdf) (Report) (Third ed.). Ecosystem Information Section, Ministry of Environment, Victoria, British Columbia. pp. 29–30. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  27. ^ Allan Brooks (April 1923). "Notes on the Birds of Porcher Island, B. C." (PDF). The Auk. 40 (2): 17–224. Retrieved 2026-01-02.
  • Blyth, Gladys Young. Salmon Canneries, North Pacific Coast, Oolichan Books, Lantzville, B.C., 1991.
  • British Columbia Magazine, Volume 45, Number 2, Summer 2003, pp. 11–19.
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