Why Baffin Island
Located in the Canadian territory of Nunavut at 68°N 70°W, Baffin Island is the largest island in Canada, the second-largest in the Americas, and the fifth-largest globally. Known in Inuktitut as Qikiqtaaluk, which translates to "very big island," it encompasses an area of over 507,000 square kilometres. The island is surrounded by numerous waterways, including Davis Strait and Baffin Bay to the east, Hudson Strait to the south, Foxe Basin to the southwest, and Lancaster Sound to the north. Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut, sits on Frobisher Bay along the island's southeastern coast.
Baffin Island has been inhabited for at least 3,000 years, historically home to the pre-Dorset and Dorset peoples before the arrival of the Thule, the ancestors of today's Inuit population. Indigenous inhabitants developed complex local technologies, including spinning yarn from muskox and hare fibers. Norse explorers visited around 1000 CE, calling the territory Helluland, while later English navigators Martin Frobisher and William Baffin explored the area in the 16th and 17th centuries. The island received its modern English name from explorer Edward Parry in 1821. Today, the majority of the population is Indigenous, primarily Inuit.
Along the northeastern coastline lie the Baffin Mountains, a component of the Arctic Cordillera chain. Key peaks include Mount Odin, the highest elevation on the island at over 2,140 metres, and Mount Asgard, situated inside Auyuittuq National Park. Nearby Mount Thor is recognized for having the earth's greatest purely vertical cliff face, measuring 1,250 metres high. In the south-central interior, the geography features two extensive freshwater bodies: Nettilling Lake and Amadjuak Lake.
The region provides crucial habitat for Arctic fauna across protected spaces like the Bowman Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and the Isulijarniq Migratory Bird Sanctuary, an internationally recognized wetland that supports the planet's largest goose colony. Resident wildlife includes polar bears hunting on coastal pack ice, Baffin Island wolves, barren-ground caribou, Arctic hares, lemmings, and both red and Arctic foxes. In the summer season, Baffin Island serves as a major breeding ground for vast numbers of migratory waterfowl, gulls, and shorebirds.
01 Weather
36°
30°
34°
28°
☔ 76%
36°
28°
35°
28°
35°
28°
☔ 100% 
35°
35°
☔ 100%