Croker Bay & Dundas Harbour, Devon Island, Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada
September 6, 2018 - Day 11 of Quark's Northwest Passage
Voyage.
The morning's activities, sights, and sounds on YOUTUBE:
youtu.be/A8-f5OCIF_k
The afternoon's activities, sights, and sounds on YOUTUBE:
youtu.be/uIV8tnO2zb0
CROKER BAY
Croker Bay is a fjord is situated on the southern coast of Devon Island on the Lancaster Sound in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada.
Devon Island, named by William Baffin in 1616 for the Devon shire in England, has its own extensive ice cap, which feeds two glaciers into Croker Bay.
The bay itself was named by William Edward Parry in 1819 in honor of John Wilson Croker, First Secretary to the Admiralty.
Upon entering this fjord, two large tide water glaciers are seen that tumble down the slopes and into the sea. These actively calving glaciers fill Croker Bay with gorgeous blue bergie bits that are released to the sea from the icecap of Devon Island.
The wide face of the glacier, backed by a spectacular stacked plateau of differently colored rock layers, makes a favorite photographic subject.
The area is a breeding site for Northern Fulmars and Black-legged Kittiwakes, The bay also is a summer ground for Arctic marine mammals. Seals are frequently sighted and occasionally walruses.
DUNDAS HARBOUR
Dundas Harbor is an abandoned settlement on Devon Island.
An outpost was established at the harbor in August 1924 as part of a government presence intended to curb foreign whaling and other activity. Hudson's Bay Company leased the outpost in 1933. The following year, 52 Inuit were relocated from Cape Dorset to Dundas Harbour but they returned to the mainland 13 years later.
Dundas Harbour was populated again in the late 1940s to maintain a patrol presence, but it was closed again in 1951 due to ice difficulties. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment was moved to Craig Harbour on southern Ellesmere Island.
Only the ruins of a few buildings remain, along with one of the northernmost cemeteries in the world.
