| Feature Type: | Islands - Land area surrounded by water or marsh. Plural of Island. |
| Status: | Official |
| Name Authority: | BC Geographical Names Office |
| Relative Location: | E of S end of Vancouver Island |
| Latitude-Longitude: | 48°57'20"N, 123°34'49"W at the approximate centre of this feature. |
| Datum: | WGS84 |
| NTS Map: | 92B/13 |
| Related Maps: |
92B/11 92B/13 92B/14 92G/4 |
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Origin Notes and History:
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Adopted 22 July 1963 on C.3001 as a long-established name. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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As originally intended & commonly understood, "Gulf Islands" refers to the archipelago at the south end of the Strait of Georgia (the islands extending from Saturna Island in the southeast and D'Arcy Island in the southwest, north to and including Gabriola Island). Note however that with the emergence of "Georgia Basin" strategies in the 1990's, the historic name "Gulf Islands" has been misconstrued as applying to ALL the islands in the Strait of Georgia; further, the misnomer "Southern Gulf Islands" has been introduced to distinguish the original archipelago, inferring that the remaining islands in Strait of Georgia comprise the "Northern Gulf Islands". Quadra Island is increasingly described in the media as the "northernmost of the Gulf Islands". Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |
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Recalls Captain Vancouver's name "Gulph of Georgia", now Strait of Georgia. Source: BC place name cards, or correspondence to/from BC's Chief Geographer or BC Geographical Names Office |