Georgian Bay

Georgian Bay
Georgian Bay at Cabot Head
Coordinates	45°30′N 81°00′W / 45.5°N 81.0°W / 45.5; -81.0Coordinates: 45°30′N 81°00′W / 45.5°N 81.0°W / 45.5; -81.0
Basin countries	Canada
Max. length	320 km (200 mi)
Max. width	80 km (50 mi)
Surface area	15,000 km2 (5,800 sq mi)
Average depth	150 feet (46 m) near the shoreline of Cabot Head
Islands	30,000+
Settlements	Collingwood Owen Sound Parry Sound Midland Penetanguishene Wasaga Beach

Georgian Bay (French: Baie Georgienne) is a large bay of Lake Huron, located entirely within Ontario, Canada. The main body of the bay lies east of the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island. To its northwest is the North Channel.

Georgian Bay is surrounded by (listed clockwise) the districts of Manitoulin, Sudbury, Parry Sound and Muskoka, as well as the more populous counties of Simcoe, Grey and Bruce. The Main Channel separates the Bruce Peninsula from Manitoulin Island and connects Georgian Bay to the rest of Lake Huron. The North Channel, located between Manitoulin Island and the Sudbury District, west of Killarney, was once a popular route for steamships and is now used by a variety of pleasure craft to travel to and from Georgian Bay.

The shores and waterways of the Georgian Bay are the traditional domain of the Anishinaabeg First Nations peoples to the north and Huron-Petun (Wyandot) to the south. The bay was thus a major Algonquian-Huron trade route. Samuel de Champlain, the first European to explore and map the area in 1615–1616, called it "La Mer douce" (the calm sea), also a reference to the bay's freshwater. It was named "Georgian Bay" (after King George IV) by Lieutenant Henry Wolsey Bayfield of the Royal Navy in 1822.