Fanny Bay is a small hamlet in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is located on Baynes Sound on the east coast of Vancouver Island. In 2001, its population was listed as 815. It is best known for its fine oysters. The area is served by the Island Highway and Island Rail Corridor. Origin of the name There is no consensus on the origin of the name Fanny Bay and none of the various explanations — comical, romantic, local or historical — can be considered without skepticism. The name first appeared on British Columbia maps in 1913 and was officially adopted by the government in 1923. This adoption was based on British Admiralty charts of the 1860s, taken from surveys by Royal Navy Captain G.H. Richards. However, if Capt. Richards knew who "Fanny" was, he did not record the information. Geographer A.B. McNeill wrote in his book Origin of Station Names, Esquimalt and Nanaimo Division that "...Fanny Bay was named after a sea captain who lived in this vicinity"; however, no dates or any other supporting information are provided. A popular and persistent local theory holds that Fanny Bay was named by Captain George Vancouver in 1792. However, Capt. Vancouver's nautical charts and journals only describe the east side of the nearest body of water, the Strait of Georgia (including Texada Island). There was only a rough outline of the eastern shore of Vancouver Island between Nanaimo and Comox, and his charts omitted several nearby islands and other features. Fanny Bay may have been named after Francis "Fanny" Palmer, the daughter of a popular Victoria family who ran a music and dance studio. Fanny perished in the sinking of the Pacific off Cape Flattery on November 4, 1875, at the age of 18. The Palmer family had a number of daughters who were accomplished singers, and their home was at the centre of the social circle in early Victoria. Shellfish Fanny Bay is well known as a source of farmed shellfish, specifically Pacific oysters (scientific name Crassostrea gigas), manila clams (Venerupis philippinarum), savoury clams (Nuttallia obscurata) and mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis), for both domestic and global markets. Oysters were introduced to the area as early as 1912 or 1913, with further seedings around 1925. As a result of the lack of Pacific oysters from Japan during World War II, further seeding occurred in 1942 (along with seedings in other parts