What is the Salish Sea?

The Salish Sea is a gift – the largest inland sea on the west coast of North America between Alaska and Mexico. The waters of the Salish Sea are a giant mixing bowl where nutrients from both mountains and the deep offshore Pacific are stirred together by tidal currents into life-giving waters.

Protected from Pacific storm swell behind Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula, the Salish Sea is fed by the great Fraser River and other coastal rivers, each delivering nutrients and creating rich estuary marshes and tidal flats. Its convoluted shores create bays, channels, fiords, islands, open reaches and deep basins that host habitats that range from salt marshes and river mouths to beaches and rocky shores – all supporting uniquely-adapted life.

Together, this big sprawling inland sea functions as a single interconnected body of life, filled with extraordinary wild neighbours.