Sooke Basin is a small (10 km²) body of water on the southern end of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest ...

in southwestern

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. It is connected to the

Strait of Juan de Fuca The Strait of Juan de Fuca (officially named Juan de Fuca Strait in Canada) is a body of water about long that is the Salish Sea's main outlet to the Pacific Ocean. The Canada–United States border, international boundary between Canada and the ...

by Sooke Harbour, a 4 km long narrow natural harbour.

Geography

Sooke Basin is a salt water body located between

Sooke Sooke () is a district municipality on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, Canada, by road from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Sooke, the westernmost of Greater Victoria's Western Communities, is to the north and west of t ...

and East Sooke. The shores of Sooke Basin are mostly rock, but along the north shore there are beautiful sandy beaches. Scattered around the remainder are occasional muddy and pebbly beaches.

Islands

Three small islets form the Goodridge Islands, located in the southeastern portion of the basin.

Coves

Roche Cove, a small shallow

cove A cove is a small bay or coastal inlet. They usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creek (tidal), creeks, or recesses in a coast ...

is located on the east end of Sooke Basin and is the focal point of the 143-hectare Roche Cove Regional Park. The narrow mouth of Roche Cove, spanned by a small bridge, makes for interesting passage as the tidal currents can be quite strong. The mouth is passable by small powerboats at mid and high tides. Roche Cove is located at the boundary between Sooke and East Sooke. Anderson Cove, a small shallow cove is located on the southeast of Sooke Basin. The entrance to Anderson Cove is quite narrow and shallow but is passable with local knowledge at mid and high tides. The shores of Anderson Cove are dotted with expensive East Sooke homes. The only public boat launch in the Sooke Basin and its coves is located in Anderson Cove. Coopers Cove is formed by the Goodridge Peninsula, the location of a former sawmill and the site of a proposed resort. Goodridge Peninsula was formed when the main portion, previously an island, was connected to the shore of Vancouver Island.

History

Sooke Basin is named for the T'sou-ke Nation of the

Coast Salish peoples The Coast Salish peoples are a group of ethnically and linguistically related Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, living in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon. They speak on ...

, the native inhabitants who had a thriving community and are believed to have been living in the general area for several thousand years before the arrival of the first European explorers. The first known European entry into Sooke Basin was by the Spanish, during the 1790 expedition of

Manuel Quimper Manuel Quimper Benítez del Pino (c. 1757 – April 2, 1844) was a Spanish Peruvian explorer, cartographer, naval officer, and colonial official. He participated in charting the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Sandwich Islands in the late 18th ...

in '' Princesa Real'', with Juan Carrasco as pilot. The Spanish gave Sooke Basin the name Puerta de Revilla Gigedo, in honour of then Viceroy of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

, Güemes Padilla Horcasitas, Count of Revillagigedo.

Communities

The northern half of the Sooke Basin is contained within the jurisdiction of the municipality of

, while the southern half is located in the East Sooke portion of the Juan de Fuca Electoral Area.

References

* {{coord, 48, 22, 45, N, 123, 39, 30, W, region:CA_type:waterbody, display=title Bays of British Columbia Greater Victoria Juan de Fuca region Ports and harbours of British Columbia