# Dixon Entrance
**Dixon Entrance** is a strait of the North Pacific Ocean lying between the southern tip of the Alaska Panhandle and the north side of [Haida Gwaii](https://www.edgepedia.org/haida-gwaii) (the former Queen Charlotte Islands) in [British Columbia](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-columbia), forming the north approach from the Pacific to the inner channels of British Columbia and the south approach to the channels of southeast Alaska[1](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html). It is entered between Langara Island and Cape Muzon, 27 miles to the north-northeast, and extends 75 miles east to the mouth of Portland Inlet[1](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html). The waterway is also one of the longest-running unresolved maritime boundary disputes between Canada and the United States, centered on a line known as the A-B Line[2](https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Meeting/Detail/?Bill=HJR+54&Meeting=HFSH+1998-02-25+17%3A03%3A00).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Location | Between southernmost Alaska and northern Graham Island of Haida Gwaii; entered between Langara Island and Cape Muzon, extending 75 miles east to the mouth of Portland Inlet[1](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html) • [3](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/rncan-nrcan/M44-93-1E-eng.pdf) |
| Approximate center | 54°24′59″N, 132°00′00″W (WGS84)[1](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html) |
| Named | 1788, by Sir Joseph Banks, after Captain George Dixon, who had sailed the coast in 1787 in the vessel Queen Charlotte[1](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html) |
| Treaty origin of the boundary | Article III of the 1825 Anglo-Russian treaty first defined the boundary in this region; the United States inherited it through the 1867 Treaty of Cession[4](https://gge.ext.unb.ca/Pubs/TR134.pdf) |
| The A-B Line | Canada maintains the 1903 arbitration created both a land and a maritime boundary; the United States treats it as a land boundary only and claims an equidistant line through the entrance[2](https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Meeting/Detail/?Bill=HJR+54&Meeting=HFSH+1998-02-25+17%3A03%3A00) • [5](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5) |
| Seafloor | A deep, asymmetrical U-shaped trough, deepest in the north toward the disputed A-B boundary, and macrotidal[3](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/rncan-nrcan/M44-93-1E-eng.pdf) |
| Status | Unresolved; each nation has at times arrested the other's fishing vessels in the disputed area[5](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5) |
## Geography and naming
The entrance is a broad trough between southernmost Alaska and northern [Graham Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/graham-island)[3](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/rncan-nrcan/M44-93-1E-eng.pdf). Unlike the shallower shelves of [Hecate Strait](https://www.edgepedia.org/hecate-strait) and [Queen Charlotte Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/queen-charlotte-sound) to the south, it is a deep, asymmetrical U-shaped valley with its deepest portion in the north, toward the disputed A-B boundary, where the seafloor shows rugged topography attributed to scouring by westward-flowing glaciers[3](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/rncan-nrcan/M44-93-1E-eng.pdf). It widens and deepens abruptly to the west at the continental shelf edge, leaving it fully exposed to the North Pacific, and it is macrotidal[3](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/rncan-nrcan/M44-93-1E-eng.pdf).
The name was applied in 1788 by Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society and a central figure in British natural science, in honor of Captain George Dixon, whose ship Queen Charlotte had worked this coast in 1787 under Captain Portlock[1](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html). The name was adopted officially on Canadian survey sheets in 1933 and confirmed in 1952[1](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html).
## The 1825 treaty and the 1903 arbitration
The boundary in the Dixon Entrance region was first defined in Article III of the 1825 treaty between Great Britain and Russia; when the United States bought Alaska in 1867, the Treaty of Cession carried that definition forward[4](https://gge.ext.unb.ca/Pubs/TR134.pdf).
The tribunal adopted neither the American nor the British contention outright; it drew a line that corresponded more closely with official Russian maps prepared shortly after the 1825 treaty was concluded[6](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-yearbook-of-international-law-annuaire-canadien-de-droit-international/article/abs/maritime-jurisdiction-in-the-dixon-entrance-the-alaska-boundary-reexamined/64790ADBA9CA476108B3912F38EE04A3). The resulting land boundary from Dixon Entrance to Mount St. Elias was surveyed and monumented between 1904 and 1914; the line ran approximately 900 miles, of which about 700 miles was on land and roughly 200 miles across water[7](https://dggs.alaska.gov/webpubs/usgs/c/text/c-0991.pdf).
## The A-B Line dispute
The maritime question survived the arbitration. Canada claims that the 1903 award delimited both a land boundary and a maritime boundary along the A-B Line, which runs from Cape Muzon on [Dall Island](https://www.edgepedia.org/dall-island); the United States position is that the A-B Line is a land boundary only and does not demarcate an ocean boundary, and it claims a territorial sea south of the line, creating a disputed maritime area[5](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5). In testimony before an Alaska legislative committee, a U.S. Coast Guard officer summarized the American claim as an equidistant line between the two coasts[2](https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Meeting/Detail/?Bill=HJR+54&Meeting=HFSH+1998-02-25+17%3A03%3A00).
Canada has maintained since the 1890s that Dixon Entrance is part of the historic internal waters of Canada, a claim it extends to Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound; the United States did not object to that position until later, and has since sent numerous diplomatic notes asserting that navigation rights there are governed by international law[5](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5). The two governments came close to settling the question in the late 1930s: a draft article of a proposed boundary convention stated that "the waters of Dixon Entrance have been under the exclusive jurisdiction of the high contracting parties," and a 1939 draft by S. Whittemore Boggs recast the sentence to call the waters "historic waters," but no convention resulted[8](https://www.supremecourt.gov/SpecMastRpt/Orig128_033004.pdf).
## Practical consequences
The unresolved status has practical reach. A NOAA study of U.S. boundary delimitation notes that in the Dixon Entrance a dispute exists over the status of the waters: Canada views the waters within the entrance as entirely Canadian, while the United States believes a maritime boundary is required[9](https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/37149/noaa_37149_DS1.pdf). The dispute has produced poor management of shared fish stocks, trade disruption, and frustration among fishermen of both nations[10](https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/ma_etds/203/). Canadian fishery management notices still regulate troll salmon fisheries by reference to the "Dixon Entrance A-B Line" areas, with Conservation and Protection officers and the [United States Coast Guard](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-coast-guard) working together to keep fisheries orderly within their respective jurisdictions[11](https://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?DOC_ID=323214&ID=all&pg=view_notice).
Shipping policy also bends around the dispute. Because Canada claims the waters as internal, Canadian tanker-moratorium legislation has been drafted to apply to the area, while the government has avoided a direct confrontation over the waters' status by regulating port access instead[5](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5). Tanker traffic from Alaska to [Puget Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/puget-sound) is managed under a voluntary tanker exclusion zone agreed by the two countries roughly 30 years before 2017, which keeps loaded tankers a set distance offshore without resolving the underlying boundary question[5](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5).
## Why the dispute persists
The disagreement turns on what the 1903 award actually decided. If the A-B Line is a maritime boundary, nearly all of Dixon Entrance falls inside Canadian waters; if it is only a land boundary, the maritime line must be drawn by some other principle, which the United States takes to be equidistance[2](https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Meeting/Detail/?Bill=HJR+54&Meeting=HFSH+1998-02-25+17%3A03%3A00) • [5](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5). Because both governments can fish, patrol, and regulate under their own interpretations without daily crisis, and because a negotiated settlement would require one side to abandon a century-old position, the line drawn in 1903 remains the last word on land and an open question at sea.
## References
1. [Dixon Entry, BC Geographical Names Office](https://apps.gov.bc.ca/pub/bcgnws/names/38498.html)
2. [Alaska State Legislature, House Fisheries Standing Committee hearing on HJR 54, February 25, 1998](https://www.akleg.gov/basis/Meeting/Detail/?Bill=HJR+54&Meeting=HFSH+1998-02-25+17%3A03%3A00)
3. [Geological Survey of Canada, surficial geology mapping of Dixon Entrance](https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2016/rncan-nrcan/M44-93-1E-eng.pdf)
4. [Canada's Unresolved Maritime Boundaries, Technical Report 134, University of New Brunswick](https://gge.ext.unb.ca/Pubs/TR134.pdf)
5. [House of Commons Standing Committee on Transport, Evidence, October 31, 2017 (Robert Hage)](https://openparliament.ca/committees/transport/42-1/78/?page=5)
6. [G. B. Bourne and D. M. McRae, "Maritime Jurisdiction in the Dixon Entrance: The Alaska Boundary Re-Examined," Canadian Yearbook of International Law](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-yearbook-of-international-law-annuaire-canadien-de-droit-international/article/abs/maritime-jurisdiction-in-the-dixon-entrance-the-alaska-boundary-reexamined/64790ADBA9CA476108B3912F38EE04A3)
7. [U.S. Geological Survey, The Alaska-Canada Boundary survey history (C 991)](https://dggs.alaska.gov/webpubs/usgs/c/text/c-0991.pdf)
8. [Report of the Special Master, State of Alaska v. United States, No. 128 Original (March 2004)](https://www.supremecourt.gov/SpecMastRpt/Orig128_033004.pdf)
9. [U.S. Boundary Delimitation Problems and Practice, NOAA](https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/37149/noaa_37149_DS1.pdf)
10. [Mary Kathleen Morrissey, "The Canadian-American Dispute Over Dixon Entrance," University of Rhode Island](https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/ma_etds/203/)
11. [Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Fishery Notice FN0547, Area F Troll Dixon Entrance A-B Line fishery](https://www-ops2.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fns-sap/index-eng.cfm?DOC_ID=323214&ID=all&pg=view_notice)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Waters and hydrographic features › Seas, oceans, and coastal waters › Straits, channels, and sounds › Straits of the Americas and polar regions › Straits and passages of continental North America*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license