Baffin Bay

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Lore & Background

The area of the bay has been inhabited since c. 500 BC. Around AD 1200, the initial Dorset settlers were replaced by the Thule (the later Inuit) peoples. Recent excavations also suggest that the Norse colonization of the Americas reached the shores of Baffin Bay sometime between the 10th and 15th centuries. The English explorer John Davis was the first recorded European to enter the bay, arriving in 1585. In 1612, a group of English merchants formed the 'Company of Merchants of London, Discoverers of the North-West Passage.' Their governor Thomas Smythe organized five expeditions to explore the northern coasts of Canada in search of a maritime passage to the Far East. Robert Bylot and his pilot William Baffin explored Hudson Strait and the area which became known as Baffin's Bay. Aboard Discovery, Baffin charted the area and named Lancaster, Smith, and Jones Sounds after members of his company. By the completion of his 1616 voyage, Baffin held out no hope of an ice-free passage and the area remained unexplored for another two centuries. Over time, his account came to be doubted until it was confirmed by John Ross's 1818 voyage. More advanced scientific studies followed in 1928, in the 1930s and after World War II by Danish, American and Canadian expeditions.

Reader's Guide

Baffin Bay is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by Baffin Island in the west, Greenland in the east, and Ellesmere Island in the north. It connects to the Atlantic through the Davis Strait, and to the Arctic through several narrow channels of Nares Strait. The bay is less than 1,000 m deep near the coast, where the sea bottom is covered with gravel, crushed stone and sand. In the centre, there is a deep pit called the Baffin Basin, reaching 2,136 m, which is mostly covered in silt. Currents form a cyclonic circulation: on the eastern periphery, in summer, the West Greenland Current transports water from the Atlantic Ocean to the north; in its western part, the Baffin Island Current brings the Arctic waters to the south. The climate is Arctic with frequent storms, especially in winter. Average January temperatures are −20 °C in the south and −28 °C in the north. In July, the average temperature is 7 °C. The water temperature at the surface is below −1 °C in winter. In summer, it varies from 4–5 °C in the south-east to 0 °C and below at north-west. The tides are semidiurnal, with an average height of 4 m and the maximum of 9 m. Baffin Bay was the epicenter of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake in 1933, the largest known earthquake north of the Arctic Circle. It caused no damage because of its offshore location and the small number of the nearby onshore communities. The northwestern part of the bay remains one of the most seismically active regions in eastern Canada. Currently, there are a few Inuit settlements on the Canadian coast of the bay, including Arctic Bay (population 690), Pond Inlet (1,315) and Clyde River (820). In 1975, a town was built at Nanisivik to support lead and zinc production at the Nanisivik Mine—the first Canadian mine in the Arctic. The mine was closed in 2002 due to declining resources and metal prices. As of the 2006 census, it has an official population of zero.

Did You Know?

• The North Water polynya covers about 80,000 km² in summer and has existed for at least 9,000 years.
• Of about 20,000 beluga whales living in Baffin Bay, some 15,000 are concentrated at the North Water.
• The 1933 earthquake of magnitude 7.3 is the largest known earthquake north of the Arctic Circle.
• William Baffin's 1616 account of the bay was doubted until confirmed by John Ross's 1818 voyage.
• The Nanisivik Mine, built in 1975, was the first Canadian mine in the Arctic; it closed in 2002.