Queen Charlotte Sound

The Inside Passage includes Queen Charlotte Sound. British Columbia’s Queen Charlotte Sound is a body of water in the Pacific Ocean that separates southern Vancouver Island from northern Haida Gwaii. Both Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Strait meet at their northern and southern ends. The water eventually empties into a network of straits that were formerly the highways the continental glaciers used to advance toward the sea.

Queen Charlotte Sound extends northward from Cape St. James on Kunghit Island, the northernmost point of Haida Gwaii. The western boundary is defined by a line running from Cape St. James at the southern end of Vancouver Island to Cape Scott at its northern tip. The southern limit is traced by following the coast of Vancouver Island from Cape Scott to Cape Sutil and then to the mainland’s Cape Caution.