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Baffin Bay AI simulator
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Hub AI
Baffin Bay AI simulator
(@Baffin Bay_simulator)
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: Saknirutiak Imanga; Greenlandic: Avannaata Imaa; French: Baie de Baffin; Danish: Baffinsbugten), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via the Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea. The narrower Nares Strait connects Baffin Bay with the Arctic Ocean. The bay is not navigable most of the year because of the ice cover and high density of floating ice and icebergs in the open areas. However, a polynya of about 80,000 km2 (31,000 sq mi), known as the North Water, opens in summer on the north near Smith Sound. Most of the aquatic life of the bay is concentrated near that region.
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of Baffin Bay as follows:
On the North. A line from Cape Sheridan, Grant Land (82°35′N 60°45′W / 82.583°N 60.750°W) to Cape Bryant, Greenland.
On the East. The West Coast of Greenland.
On the South. The parallel of 70° North between Greenland and Baffin Land.
On the West. The Eastern limits of the North-West Passages [The East Coast of Ellesmere Island between C. Sheridan and Cape Norton Shaw (76°29′N 78°30′W / 76.483°N 78.500°W), thence across to Phillips Point (Coburg Island) through this Island to Marina Peninsula (75°55′N 79°10′W / 75.917°N 79.167°W) and across to Cape Fitz Roy (Devon Island) down the East Coast to Cape Sherard (Cape Osborn) (74°35′N 80°30′W / 74.583°N 80.500°W) and across to Cape Liverpool, Bylot Island (73°44′N 77°50′W / 73.733°N 77.833°W); down the East coast of this island to Cape Graham Moore, its southeastern point, and thence across to Cape Macculloch (72°29′N 75°08′W / 72.483°N 75.133°W) and down the East coast of Baffin Island to East Bluff, its Southeastern extremity, and thence the Eastern limit of Hudson Strait].
— International Hydrographic Organization, Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition
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. Henry Hudson and Thomas Button explored Hudson Bay, William Gibbons Labrador, and Robert Bylot Hudson Strait and the area which became known as Baffin's Bay after his pilot William Baffin. 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.
Baffin Bay
Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: Saknirutiak Imanga; Greenlandic: Avannaata Imaa; French: Baie de Baffin; Danish: Baffinsbugten), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a sea of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is connected to the Atlantic via the Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea. The narrower Nares Strait connects Baffin Bay with the Arctic Ocean. The bay is not navigable most of the year because of the ice cover and high density of floating ice and icebergs in the open areas. However, a polynya of about 80,000 km2 (31,000 sq mi), known as the North Water, opens in summer on the north near Smith Sound. Most of the aquatic life of the bay is concentrated near that region.
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of Baffin Bay as follows:
On the North. A line from Cape Sheridan, Grant Land (82°35′N 60°45′W / 82.583°N 60.750°W) to Cape Bryant, Greenland.
On the East. The West Coast of Greenland.
On the South. The parallel of 70° North between Greenland and Baffin Land.
On the West. The Eastern limits of the North-West Passages [The East Coast of Ellesmere Island between C. Sheridan and Cape Norton Shaw (76°29′N 78°30′W / 76.483°N 78.500°W), thence across to Phillips Point (Coburg Island) through this Island to Marina Peninsula (75°55′N 79°10′W / 75.917°N 79.167°W) and across to Cape Fitz Roy (Devon Island) down the East Coast to Cape Sherard (Cape Osborn) (74°35′N 80°30′W / 74.583°N 80.500°W) and across to Cape Liverpool, Bylot Island (73°44′N 77°50′W / 73.733°N 77.833°W); down the East coast of this island to Cape Graham Moore, its southeastern point, and thence across to Cape Macculloch (72°29′N 75°08′W / 72.483°N 75.133°W) and down the East coast of Baffin Island to East Bluff, its Southeastern extremity, and thence the Eastern limit of Hudson Strait].
— International Hydrographic Organization, Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition
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. Henry Hudson and Thomas Button explored Hudson Bay, William Gibbons Labrador, and Robert Bylot Hudson Strait and the area which became known as Baffin's Bay after his pilot William Baffin. 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.