Short answers, pulled from the story.
Vancouver Island has a total area of 32,100 square kilometres, of which 31,285 square kilometres is land. It is the largest island along the west coasts of the Americas and the 43rd largest island in the world.
The island was jointly named after British naval captain George Vancouver and Spanish commander Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra following their 1792 negotiations at Nootka Sound. The original name was "The Island of Quadra and Vancouver." Bodega y Quadra's name was gradually dropped as Spanish interests in the region declined, and by 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company had settled on "Vancouver's Island" in its correspondence.
Three broad language groupings have inhabited Vancouver Island for thousands of years: the Kwakwakaʼwakw on the northern and northwestern portions, the Nuu-chah-nulth along most of the west coast, and the Coast Salish peoples across the southeastern island. Distinct Coast Salish nations include the Cowichan, Saanich, Songhees, and Snuneymuxw, among others.
The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake, which registered 7.3 on the moment magnitude scale, is the strongest earthquake ever recorded on land in Canada. Its epicentre was the Forbidden Plateau in the eastern Vancouver Island Ranges. The region remains seismically active because the Juan de Fuca Plate is still subducting beneath the island along the Cascadia subduction zone.
Vancouver Island has the mildest climate in Canada overall. The southeastern portion has a warm summer Mediterranean climate, and since the mid-1990s some areas have been mild enough to grow Mediterranean crops such as olives and lemons. Precipitation varies dramatically: the west coast town of Hucuktlis Lake receives 6,650 millimetres of rain annually, making it the wettest place in North America, while Victoria Gonzales on the southeast coast receives only 608 millimetres.
Sea otters were hunted to local extinction by fur traders and the last individual near Vancouver Island was taken near Kyuquot in 1929. Between 1969 and 1972-89 sea otters were flown or shipped from Alaska to the island's west coast. The transplanted population grew to more than 3,000 and expanded its range from Cape Scott in the north to Barkley Sound in the south.