Prince of Wales Strait

The Prince of Wales Strait is a strait in the Northwest Territories of Canada separating Banks Island to the northwest from Victoria Island to the southeast. It extends from Viscount Melville Sound in the northeast to Amundsen Gulf in the southwest. From late winter it is filled by ice that usually does not break up until August. Its namesake, Prince of Wales Island, lies over two-hundred miles to the southeast.

The strait is an alternative route for the Northwest Passage, a sea route linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1969, the oil tanker SS "Manhattan" was forced to use it after ice had blocked McClure Strait. As the strait narrows to less than 24 miles, vessels using it pass within undisputed Canadian waters (see Canadian Arctic Archipelago).