South Coast of British Columbia - Shipping, Ferries, and Sailing

Shipping, Ferries, and Sailing

Scheduled Passenger Services operating on the British Columbia Coast are dominated by BC Ferries and the Alaska Marine Highway.

BC Ferries, a privately managed Crown Corporation, operates major daily sailings between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island via three routes: Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay, Tsawwassen, British Columbia to Swartz Bay, British Columbia, and Duke Point, British Columbia to Tsawwassen.

Dozens of smaller ferries ply lesser routes between the Gulf Islands and the mainland or Vancouver Island as well as on various lakes in the Interior where no bridges exist. Other runs connect Horseshoe Bay to the Sunshine Coast and Bowen Island and the lower Sunshine Coast to the Powell River section of that coast farther northwest. From there, a ferry operates to Comox.

BC Ferries also operates a sailing from Prince Rupert to Masset on Haida Gwaii as well as a major Inside Passage routing from Port Hardy on northern Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert and, in summer season, from Port Hardy to Bella Coola via several smaller coastal communities in between.

The Alaska Marine Highway operates regular ferry sailings from Bellingham, Washington to Ketchikan, Wrangell, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Haines and lesser ports-of-call in Southeast Alaska. The Alaska Marine Highway also operates a vessel from Prince Rupert to Ketchikan and other Southeast ports.

Other scheduled passenger services are run by various small shipping and water-taxi companies.

Non-scheduled passenger services include all major cruise lines and various small luxury craft sharters, as well as shuttles to and from the various coastal resorts.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest commercial shipping port the in Pacific Northwest and Canada and is the largest on the West Coast of North America by metric tons of total cargo with 76.5 million metric tons and is the fifth largest port in North America overall.