Gooch Island is located approximately eight kilometres east of Sidney, British Columbia. It was named after Thomas Sherlock Gooch, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy who served aboard the HMS Satellite during its time in BC, from 1857 to 1860.
Gooch Island is privately owned.1 It features a watchtower and a house on its northwest edge. On September 16, 1995,
the Artificial Reef Society of British Columbia scuttled the HMCS MacKenzie north of Gooch Island to function as an artificial reef
for divers to explore.2