VICTORIA -- The man who first envisaged the name change says B.C. can have it both ways rather than choosing between the Strait of Georgia and the Salish Sea.

Bert Webber, a Bellingham marine biologist, first proposed calling the marine waters of southern B.C. and northern Washington the Salish Sea in an interview with the Bellingham Herald in 1988. Any name change would require approval from both sides of the border, since the southern end of the Strait of Georgia is in U.S. territory.

The name Salish Sea has buzzed around the area ever since and even made its way as a formal request to the B.C. and Washington State governments, where it was turned down flat in 1990.

Mr. Webber, now a retired marine biology professor from Western Washington University, says his plan was to name all three major inland waterways of the region the Salish Sea.

The idea being considered in B.C., with the encouragement of Premier Gordon Campbell and Aboriginal Relations Minister Mike de Jong, is to rename only the Strait of Georgia the Salish Sea.

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