Strongtide Islet is one of the Chatham Islands, off the southeastern tip of Vancouver Island, about 5.4 miles (8.7 km) east-northeast of Victoria and 2.5 miles (4 km) northeast of Oak Bay, British Columbia. Royal Navy surveyors named the group in 1846 for HMS Chatham, the escort vessel of HMS Discovery, which carried Captain George Vancouver on his 1792-94 survey of what is now the British Columbia coast. The group also includes Alpha, Griffin and Vantreight Islands. Strongtide Islet itself was named separately, in 1862, by Royal Navy surveyor Captain George Richards, who noted on his chart of the area that the ebb tide runs strongly past it, nearly six knots at spring tides.

All the islands except Alpha Islet, an ecological reserve, lie within Chatham Islands Indian Reserve No. 4 and fall under the jurisdiction of the Songhees First Nation. From the early 18th century to the late 19th, the British Crown signed treaties with Indigenous peoples in its North American colonies to define land rights and support peaceful relations; those signed after 1763 transferred Aboriginal title to the Crown in exchange for reserve lands and other benefits. The Chatham Islands are treaty lands, but the Songhees First Nation never forfeited its rights to the foreshore and aquatic lands. That foreshore remains provincial Crown land, subject to those retained rights.

Radio station CJVI served Victoria and southern Vancouver Island at 900 kHz continuously from May 1945 until September 2000, when owner Rogers Broadcasting took it off the air and replaced it with FM station CHTT. In 1963 CJVI moved its transmitting facilities to Strongtide Islet under a long-term lease with the Songhees Nation, which let the First Nation continue using the site and gave it a revenue source; the towers have since remained for other purposes, including navigation and aviation lighting. In 2014 boaters reportedly dragged an anchor through the islet’s power cable, cutting electricity to Strongtide and nearby islands; a temporary generator kept the tower lights running until a replacement cable was laid the following year. Read more here and here. Explore more of Strongtide Islet and Chatham Islands here: