Williston Lake in northern British Columbia is the seventh-largest artificial reservoir by volume in the world, and the largest body of fresh water in the Canadian province. The T-shaped reservoir has covered slightly more than 650 square miles since it was filled up in 1972.

All of its islands are mapped and well-known to boaters.

And yet in video footage circulating among Canadian social media users this summer, there was a never-before-seen island, green and woody, estimated to be nearly two-and-a-half acres in size and purported to be floating in the middle of the reservoir.

Bob Gammer, a spokesman for BC Hydro, the government-owned utility that operates the reservoir and a nearby dam, saw the video in mid-August. He could not, and would not, believe the footage was real. Probably A.I., he thought. There were no signs of the island reported by anyone in recent weeks, so Mr. Gammer dismissed it and went on as usual.

But then an engineer for the company obtained satellite imagery of the reservoir from a few weeks earlier.

There was the island.

It was real.

“This is a first for us, for this reservoir,” Mr. Gammer said in an interview on Monday.

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