No one knows where it came from or where it went, but a massive new island might be floating out somewhere in the Williston Reservoir in northern B.C.
The forested land mass caught the attention of B.C. Hydro and local residents earlier this month after it was spotted bobbing in the massive man-made lake north of Mackenzie.
Rocky Avery says video and pictures of the island were taken by a boater and later shared with him. He posted them on social media, and they quickly went viral.
"It was a pretty amazing sight to see, never seen anything like that in my 40 years in this country," said Avery.
"There was a big fishing derby coming up, so I wanted to make sure everybody was aware of what was going on. And I wanted B.C. Hydro to know too that it was out there, just in case it was floating down their way."
The discovery left a B.C. Hydro spokesperson incredulous when CBC News first inquired about the island's origins.
Bob Gammer says he was first skeptical about the origins of the video because of the rise of generative AI technology. Not everything posted online can be trusted as being credible at first glance, he said.
"It's certainly something we've not heard of before," said Gammer. "And with not very many people reporting it, it was difficult to locate."
But satellite imagery dated July 21 confirmed the island was in fact real, and floating in the main body of the reservoir west of Finlay Bay, about 100 kilometres west of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam.
Gammer says the island was estimated around 70 metres wide and 140 metres long, or about 9,800 square metres in area.
According to those estimates, that's roughly the size of two NFL football fields.
By Aug. 5, the island was no longer showing up in satellite data.
"We've been taking more updated snapshots and we can't see the object anymore. So it's disappeared now," Gammer said.
"It doesn't mean it's gone to the bottom of the reservoir. It may have returned to a more sheltered area along the shoreline."
Gammer says no operational impacts are expected, though B.C. Hydro is monitoring for the island's possible reappearance.
