From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baffin Bay
(
Inuktitut
:
Saknirutiak Imanga
,
[1]
) is a
marginal sea
of the
North Atlantic Ocean
.
[2]
[3]
[4]
It is between
Baffin Island
and the southwest coast of
Greenland
. It connects to the Atlantic by
Davis Strait
and the
Labrador Sea
. A narrower
Nares Strait
connects Baffin Bay with the
Arctic Ocean
.
People lived in the bay area from around 500 BC. First there were the
Dorset
and then
Thule
and
Inuit
people. It was reached by Europeans in 1585.
William Baffin
described the bay in detail in 1616. He is who the bay and the island are named after. People cannot travel on the bay most of the year because of the
ice cover
and large amount of
floating ice
and
icebergs
in the open areas.
Baffin Bay was the
epicenter
of a 7.3
magnitude
earthquake in 1933
. This is the largest known earthquake north of the
Arctic Circle
.
The North Water provides air to
ice algae
and
zooplankton
. There are many animals. Of about 20,000
Beluga whales
living in the Baffin Bay, some 15,000 are around the North Water.
[5]
Other animals of the region include
walrus
,
narwhal
,
Harp Seal
,
bearded seal
,
ringed seal
and
polar bear
.
There are about 400 plant and tree species on the bay shores, including
birch
,
willow
,
alder
and
plants adapted to salty soils
, as well as
lyme grass
, mosses, and lichens. These serve as food for
caribou
and rodents, such as
lemming
. Resident fish species include
polar cod
,
Arctic flounder
(
Pleuronectidae
,
Liopsetta
), four-horned
sculpin
and
capelin
. The birds of the bay are the
Little Auk
,
Snowy Owl
,
Willow Ptarmigan
,
Rock Ptarmigan
,
Gyrfalcon
,
Arctic Redpoll
and
guillemots
. Most of them migrate to the south during the winter.
[3]
[6]
[7]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Baffin Bay
.
73°N
67°W
/
73°N 67°W
/
73; -67
(
Baffin Bay
)
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|