Catala Island
Feature Type:Island - Land area surrounded by water or marsh.
Status: Official
Name Authority: BC Geographical Names Office
Relative Location: W side Vancouver Island, in entrance to Esperanza Inlet, Nootka Land District
Latitude-Longitude: 49°50'14"N, 127°03'05"W at the approximate centre of this feature.
Datum: WGS84
NTS Map: 92E/14
Origin Notes and History:

Adopted 16 May 1946 on C. 3662, as labelled on BC map 2C, 1919.

Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office

Shown on the chart of Eliza and Malaspina, 1791, having been surveyed by Malaspina's officers, and labelled Isla de Catala on Galiano's chart of 1792. After the Rev. Magin Catala, a Franciscan monk who served at Nootka as chaplain for more than a year, returning to California in 1794. Father Catala was born in 1761 in Catalonia, Spain, and arrived in Mexico in 1786. For 44 years he was engaged on the Spanish-American coast in missionary work, and when he died at Santa Clara, 30 November 1830, left behind him a name of sanctity and zeal.

Source: Walbran, John T; British Columbia Coast Names, 1592-1906: their origin and history; Ottawa, 1909 (republished for the Vancouver Public Library by J.J. Douglas Ltd, Vancouver, 1971)