Pearse Canal is a channel or strait

Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, typically navigable channel of water that connects two larger, navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not...

 forming part of the Canada-United States border

Canada-United States border

The Canada–United States border, officially known as the International Boundary, is the longest border in the world. The terrestrial boundary is 8,891 kilometers long, including 2,475 kilometres shared with Alaska...

 at the southern end of the Alaska Panhandle

Alaska Panhandle

Southeast Alaska, sometimes referred to as the Alaska Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, which lies west of the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska's area is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United...

 and adjacent to the mouth of Portland Inlet

Portland Inlet

Portland Inlet is an inlet of the Pacific Ocean on the coast of British Columbia, Canada, approximately 55 kilometers north of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. It joins the Chatham Sound opposite the Dixon Entrance. It is 40 kilometers long and as much as 13 kilometers wide...

. It is on the northwest side of Wales

Wales Island (British Columbia)

Wales Island is an island on the North Coast of British Columbia, Canada, situated east of the Dixon Entrance at the entrance to Portland Inlet. in area, Wales Island is north of the port city of Prince Rupert, and south-east of Ketchikan, Alaska....

 and Pearse Island

Pearse Island

Pearse Island is an island in western British Columbia, Canada, in the Portland Inlet, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. The island was first charted in 1793 by George Vancouver during his 1791-95 expedition...

s, which are in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and forms part of the southwestern edge of Misty Fjords National Monument

Misty Fjords National Monument

Misty Fiords National Monument is a National Monument and Wilderness Area administered by the US Department of Agriculture United States Forest Service 40 miles east of Ketchikan, Alaska, along the Inside Passage coast in extreme southeastern Alaska and covering 2,294,343 acres of Tongass...

 in Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The southwest entrance to the strait is between Phipp Point and Maie Point, both in Alaska.

Name origin

The strait was named by Captain Daniel Pender

Daniel Pender

Daniel Pender was a Royal Navy Staff Commander, later Captain, who surveyed the Coast of British Columbia aboard HMS Plumper, HMS Hecate and the Beaver from 1857 to 1870.-Legacy:...

 in 1868 as part of surveying of the coast, in association with Pearse Island

Pearse Island

Pearse Island is an island in western British Columbia, Canada, in the Portland Inlet, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean. The island was first charted in 1793 by George Vancouver during his 1791-95 expedition...

 (see that article for more).

International boundary

Pearse Canal was established as part of the Canada-United States border as part of the outcome of the Hay-Herbert Treaty

Hay-Herbert Treaty

The Alaska boundary treaty, also known as the Hay–Herbert treaty, signed in 1903, is a treaty between Great Britain and United States that resolved a dispute on the location of the border between Alaska and Canada....

, otherwise known as the Alaska Boundary Settlement, of January 24, 1903. US claims had included Wales and Pearse Island. Under the terms of the treaty, Pearse Canal along with Tongass Passage

Tongass Passage

Tongass Passage is a strait on the Canada-United States border between Alaska and British Columbia, located on the southwest side of Wales Island. Wales Island, and Pearse Island, to its northeast, were claimed by the United States prior to the settlement of the Alaska boundary dispute in 1903. ...

 (at Eales Island's southeast end) and the Portland Canal

Portland Canal

The Portland Canal is an arm of Portland Inlet, one of the principal inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is approximately long. The Portland Canal forms part of the border between southeastern Alaska and British Columbia. The name of the entire inlet in the Nisga'a language is K'alii...

 is defined as "Portland Channel", a term which was established as defining the boundary by the Anglo-Russian Treaty of 1825 but which remained undefined and not on maps until this time. Disputes over the meaning of the term were pivotal to the eventual settlement of the boundary in this region (a varying interpretation maintained the meaning was Clarence Strait

Clarence Strait

Clarence Strait, originally Duke of Clarence Strait, is a strait in southeastern Alaska, in the United States in the Alexander Archipelago. The strait separates Prince of Wales Island, on the west side, from Revillagigedo Island and Annette Island, on the east side...

, while the original US interpretation interpreted it as south of Wales Island.)