Alberni Inlet
| Alberni Inlet formerly: Alberni Canal |
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 Alberni Inlet at China Creek |
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Land mass | Vancouver Island | |
| Geographical location | 49 ° 5 ′ N , 124 ° 49 ′ W | |
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| length | approx. 40 km | |
| Tributaries | Somass River , China Creek , Franklin River , Nahmint River | |
 Good Friday (Good Friday) TSUNAMI 1964 |
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Alberni Inlet (formerly known as Alberni Canal ) is a long narrow inlet in Vancouver Island , British Columbia , Canada that extends inland from the Pacific Ocean at Barkley Sound for 40 kilometers (25 miles) and ends at Port Alberni . It was named by the Spanish explorer and explorer Francisco de Eliza after Pedro de Alberni, captain of the Primera Compañía Franca de Voluntarios de Cataluña, who was stationed in a Spanish fort on the Nootka Sound from 1790 to 1792 . The inlet includes the territories of the First Nations ( Ucluelet , Pacheedaht and Tseshaht People), who are part of the Nuu-chah-nulth-speaking peoples .
history
Exposed to the open Pacific, the Alberni Inlet is vulnerable to tsunamis . The largest in estuary history was the 1964 Good Friday quake in Alaska , which destroyed parts of downtown Port Alberni. Tsunamis also repeatedly hit a First Nations settlement, the village of Sarita. It is located on a shallow sandbar, which in turn is halfway to the east bank of the inlet.
Name change
In 1931, there was a recommendation that the Alberni canal in Alberni inlet should be renamed so that the foreign sailors not to error subject to the Alberni canal was indeed a channel. This recommendation is described in the official geographical directory of British Columbia ( BCGNIS ) as follows: “For the first time so referred to in Spanish directories. In 1931 HD Parizeau, the hydrographic service, recommended that the ambiguous designation 'canal' be changed to 'inlet' ... it is very important for foreign trade that takes place between Port Alberni and the rest of the world that the word ' canal ', which is a big misunderstanding, is changed to the correct word' inlet '. It is necessary to inform them that there are great difficulties with the word 'canal', in general among foreign boaters, who are such that sending their vessels through the estuary means extra work and danger for them; because from their point of view the Alberni Canal is something similar to the Manchester Canal, the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal, where you have to have extra fees for pilots, for the canal itself, special insurance and the like. ”The name change was officially made in the Approved in 1945.
Other inlets on the northwest coast continued to be designated canals , the best known being the Lynn Canal , Portland Canal and Hood Canal .
Web links
- Information about the Alberni Inlet ( Memento of November 12, 2002 in the Internet Archive )