Oval Bay, on the island's western edge, features a 5 km (3.1 mi) sandy beach, which is exposed to the ferocious southeast gales that regularly sweep through Hecate Strait.

The route of the Inside Passage that the Sparrowhawk took from Esquimalt to the Hudson's Bay Company trading post at Fort Simpson (the Tsimshian village of Lax Kw'alaams) would have passed close by the island in Chatham Sound that now bears the Commander's name.

With the exception of a brief influx of homesteaders in the wake of Prince Rupert being chosen as the terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in 1906, Porcher Island has always been sparsely populated.

[14][15] Hunts Inlet is a collection of older buildings grouped around a government dock, with the more recent addition of a number of vacation homes built by Prince Rupert residents.

Lowland climate in the Porcher Island region is dominated by frontal flows from Dixon Entrance, resulting in frequent wind storms and heavy rainfall.

Species include Merganser, Surfbird, Marbled Murrelet, Glaucous-winged gull, Northwest heron, Red-Throated Loon, Rhinoceros auklet, Greater white-fronted goose and Northern bald eagle.

[18] Both Chatham Sound and Kitkatla Channel afford a profusion of breeding and nesting habitat for a wide variety of seabirds, and are essential components of the Pacific coast migratory flyway.