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. 