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 and the Skeena-Queen Charlotte Regional District.
The island, together with some of its surrounding area, had a population of 37 in the Canada 2006 Census, down 26% from the 2001 census.
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 east. Metlakata Inlet and Kitkatla Channel separate Porcher’s southern flank from the Goschen, Dolphin and Spicer Islands, near the entrance to Principe Channel. Kitkatla (Laxklan), a Tsimshian village, is situated on Dolphin Island.
Porcher Island is nearly bisected from the south by Porcher Inlet, a long, narrow channel that intrudes 13.7 km (8.5 mi) into the island’s interior, before emptying into a salt lagoon at the foot of the Spiller Range. Oval Bay, on the island’s western edge, features a 5 km (3.1 mi) sandy beach, which is exposed to the ferocious southeast gales that regularly sweep through Hecate Strait.
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