Whitefish Bay

Whitefish Bay Coordinates: 46°42′8″N 84°47′20″W / 46.70222°N 84.78889°W / 46.70222; -84.78889 is a large bay on the eastern end of the southern shore of Lake Superior between Michigan and Ontario. It begins in the north and west at Whitefish Point in Michigan, about 10 miles north of Paradise, Michigan and ends at the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie on the southeast. The eastern side of the bay on the Ontario side is more rugged, largely wilderness Canadian Shield. The international boundary runs through the bay, which is heavily used by shipping traffic northbound and southbound from the Soo Locks. The Whitefish Point Light marks the entry of the bay, Ile Parisienne Light is in the middle of the bay, and Point Iroquois Light lies near the mouth of the bay and the approach of the Soo Locks.

Whitefish Bay became the site of numerous shipwrecks after the Soo Locks opened in 1855. Many of the shipwrecks of Whitefish Bay are protected for future generations of sports divers by the Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve, including the wrecks of the Comet, John B. Cowle, Drake, Samuel Mather, Miztec, Myron, Niagara, John M. Osborn, Sagamore, Superior City, and the Vienna.

Whitefish Point is the home of a former Coast Guard station and Whitefish Point Lighthouse is the oldest active light on Lake Superior. Part of the lighthouse station houses the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, which includes artifacts from the above shipwrecks and information on the wreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald. The Point is a popular place for rock collectors, ship watchers, and spectacular bird watching. Whitefish Point's land and water provides a natural corridor for birds that makes it a migratory route of world significance. It is a designated Important Bird Area where the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory conducts important research.