Foveaux Strait

Foveaux Strait (Māori: Te Ara a Kiwa meaning for "the path of the southern right whales") separates Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand's third largest island, from the South Island. Three large bays, Te Waewae Bay, 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/Rakiura, Dog Island and Ruapuke Island. The strait is about 130 km long (from Ruapuke Island to Little Solander Island), and it widens (from 14 km at Ruapuke Island to 50 km at Te Waewae Bay) 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 epoch.

Captain Cook sighted the entrance to Foveaux Strait during his circumnavigation of the South Island in March 1770, but thought Stewart Island was joined to the mainland. The strait's European discoverer was Owen Folger Smith, who found it in 1804. It is named after Joseph Foveaux, Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales in 1808–1809.

Foveaux Strait is home to the Bluff oyster fishery, the oysters are harvested by a fleet of dredging boats - mostly operating from Bluff Harbour 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.

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