AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
A mystery is afoot in the middle of a lake in western Canada. A floating island is playing peekaboo on Williston Lake in British Columbia. The thickly forested island, around 500 feet long, was first spotted in the reservoir last month, only then to apparently vanish. It was later seen 20 miles from its original location. Joining us to discuss this mystery is Bob Gammer. He's a spokesman for the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority that operates the reservoir and nearby dam. Welcome to the program.
BOB GAMMER: Thanks, Ayesha. It's good to be here.
RASCOE: So tell us, how did this island first come to your attention?
GAMMER: We first heard about it from a member of the media in northern British Columbia who had seen a Facebook post. Someone had been out on the reservoir in their boat and came across this island. And so they got some video and some still photos, and then they posted it to Facebook. So at first, honestly, I thought it was not real.
RASCOE: So you saw it, and you're like, that's AI. That is not real (laughter).
GAMMER: Yeah. It just seemed so incredible.
RASCOE: Yeah.
GAMMER: You know, we'd never heard of anything like this on the reservoir. Internally, I've talked to people, and they've not heard of an island. Folks who live on the reservoir and recreate on the reservoir, nobody's come forward to say, oh, I've seen this from so many years ago. No. This was a brand-new phenomenon.
RASCOE: What is this island made of? How was it created? How did it show up?
GAMMER: Yeah. We only have a theory at this point.
RASCOE: OK.
GAMMER: Our best understanding from simple observations is that this is probably an island that grew up on top of a bunch of woody debris that had been compressed together, crowded into a sheltered bay, along the shoreline of the reservoir for many, many years. Just a whole bunch of logs floating in the water that just got kind of packed together. And then, eventually, those logs started to decompose. You know, seeds and whatnot, would land on those logs, and they would, you know, start growing moss and eventually grow trees. And the trees grew up, and they've kind of knitted to hold all of these floating logs and woody debris together. And at some point, when the reservoir rose - as it does every year - with the spring snowmelt filling up the reservoir, it may have dislodged this island of logs and vegetation up and away from the shoreline, and then the wind pushed it out into open water.
RASCOE: Do you have any concerns about people just trying to somehow get close to it? Would that be a concern?
GAMMER: We're fine with people getting close. Like, if they want to motor their boat up to near the island, that's fine. Get your drone out, you know? Fly up over and around the island with your drone.
RASCOE: Yeah.
GAMMER: Hey, that would be great.
RASCOE: OK.
GAMMER: But yeah, we are definitely warning people not to go on the island because of that inherent instability. We don't know how solid the surface is. If you were to climb up on it, you might fall through. As much as everybody is curious and fascinated by this, we just want to warn people to exercise caution and really stay safe.
RASCOE: That's Bob Gammer from the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority. Thanks so much for joining us.
GAMMER: Glad to speak with you. Nice to be on NPR.
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