The Foveaux Strait, (, or , ) separates

Stewart Island Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, 'Aurora, glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

's third largest island, from the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. The strait is about 130 km long (from Ruapuke Island to Little Solander Island), and it widens (from 14 km at

Ruapuke Island Ruapuke Island is one of the southernmost islands in New Zealand's main chain of islands. It lies to the southeast of Bluff and northeast of Oban on Stewart Island/Rakiura. It was named "Bench Island" upon its discovery by Captain James Coo ...

to 50 km at

Te Waewae Bay Te Waewae Bay is the westernmost of three large bays lying on the Foveaux Strait coast of Southland, New Zealand, the others being Oreti Beach and Toetoes Bay. Twenty-seven kilometres in length, the western end of the bay is mountainous, with ...

) and deepens (from 20 to 120 m) from east to west. The strait lies within the continental shelf area of New Zealand, and was probably dry land during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

epoch. Three large bays,

, Oreti Beach and Toetoes Bay, sweep along the strait's northern coast, which also hosts Bluff township and harbour. Across the strait lie the Solander Islands, Stewart Island, Dog Island and

. According to a Maori legend, the strait was created by Kewa the obedient whale when traditional Maori ancestor Kiwa summoned the whale to create a waterway.

History

During the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were over 100 metres lower than current levels, the South Island and Stewart Island were connected by a coastal plain. After sea levels began to rise 7,000 years ago, the modern Foveaux Strait was created and the islands were separated. Margaret Cameron-Ash claims that

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

sighted Foveaux Strait during his circumnavigation of the South Island in March 1770, but hid his discovery for reasons of military and colonial policy. Mawer, however, argues that it is more likely that Cook simply made an error, as his focus was on finding the southern extent of New Zealand, and conditions were unfavourable for more closely exploring the possible strait. The strait was first charted by Owen Folger Smith, a New Yorker who had been in Sydney Harbour with Eber Bunker from whom he probably learned of the eastern seal fishery. Smith charted the strait in the whaleboat of the sealing brig ''Union'' (out of New York) in 1804 and on his 1806 chart it was called Smith's Straits. This chart was given to Governor

Philip Gidley King Captain Philip Gidley King (23 April 1758 – 3 September 1808) was a British politician who was the third Governor of New South Wales. When the First Fleet arrived in January 1788, King was detailed to colonise Norfolk Island for defence ...

, who did not make it public, even though he was duty bound to communicate all hydrographic discoveries to the Admiralty. The sealing brig ''Pegasus'', commanded by Eber Bunker, ran aground in the strait in 1809, and in the report on this in the ''

Sydney Gazette ''The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'' was the first newspaper printed in Australia, running from 5 March 1803 until 20 October 1842. It was a semi-official publication of the government of New South Wales, authorised by Governo ...

'', the strait was called Foveaux Strait, after Joseph Foveaux, Lieutenant-Governor of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 1808–1809. Whaling stations operated on the shores of the strait in the nineteenth century. Foveaux Strait is home to the Bluff oyster fishery, the oysters are harvested by a fleet of dredging boats - mostly operating from

Bluff Harbour The entrance to Bluff Harbour viewed from the International Space Station in 2008, with Foveaux Strait at bottom. The town of Bluff, New Zealand">Bluff sits on the north shore of the Bluff promontory, lower left, with the angular form of Island H ...

in the South Island - between March and August each year. Oystering began on Stewart Island during the 1860s, and gradually moved into the strait with the discovery of larger oyster beds there in 1879. The strait is a rough and often treacherous stretch of water. In 2006, six muttonbirders died when their trawler sank while returning to Bluff. From the years 1998 to 2012 there were a total of 23 fatalities in the Strait. John van Leeuwen swam it on 7 February 1963, in a time of 13 hours 40 minutes.

References

{{Authority control Straits of New Zealand Landforms of Southland, New Zealand Stewart Island Whaling stations in New Zealand