Saturna Island
Destinations
Did You Know?
Saturna Island is a mountainous island, about 31 square kilometres (12 sq mi) in size, in the Southern Gulf Islands chain of British Columbia, Canada. It is situated approximately midway between the Lower Mainland of B.C. and Vancouver Island, and is the most easterly of the Gulf Islands. It is surrounded on three sides by the Canada–United States border. To the north is Point Roberts, Washington, and to the east and south are the San Juan Islands.
The Local Culture
The island was first used by indigenous people who called the island "Long Nose," due to the island's long north-eastern tapering shoreline that ends at East Point. The name Saturna comes from the Spanish naval schooner Santa Saturnina ("St. Saturnina") captained by pilot (piloto) José María Narváez, whichalong with a longboat of the Spanish naval packet ship San Carlos, explored the island's coast in an excursion under the overall command of Pilot Juan Pantoja y Arriaga in 1791. The name was initially applied only to East Point. The contraction to "Saturna" applied to the whole island was first made by Dionisio Alcalá Galiano in 1792. The first European settlers came in the 1800s, but the island was slower to develop than the neighbouring Southern Gulf Islands due to its relative isolation and mountainous topograhy.
Geography
East Point is a place popular for onshore whale watching. It is also the site where Moby Doll, the first orca ever live-captured for aquarium display was harpooned in 1964, before orca harpooning practices and whales kept in captivity were banned in Canada. The Saturna Island Heritage Committee runs a small museum in the former fog alarm building at East Point where visitors can learn about Moby Doll and some of Saturna's history.
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The resident J, K and L orca pods pass by in the summer months, with transient orca visiting year round. Saturna has many species of terrestrial, aerial and aquatic animals. Saturna is a popular destination for geocachers, with approximately 60 caches available on the island. Caches are built and maintained by Parks Canada and the Saturna Ecological Education Centre.
