Baffin Bay July, the average temperature is . The annual precipitation is on the Greenland side and about twice as much near Baffin Island. The water temperature at the surface is below in winter. In summer, it varies from in the south-east to and below at north-west. The salinity exceeds 34‰ (parts per thousand) in winter. In summer, it is 32‰ on the east and 30–31‰ on the west. Deep waters are formed as a result of mixing of Arctic and Atlantic waters; their temperature is about and salinity is 34.5 ‰. In winter, 80% of the bay is covered with continuous
Shelikof Strait variances of up to 40 feet (12 meters). The strait is named after Grigory Shelikhov (1747–1795), also spelled "Shelikof", the Russian fur trader who founded the first Russian settlement in what is now Alaska at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island in 1784. The United States Navy seaplane tender USS "Shelikof", in commission from 1944 to 1947 and from 1952 to 1954, was named for Shelikof Strait. Shelikof Strait Shelikof Strait () is a strait on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Alaska between the Alaska mainland to the west and Kodiak and Afognak islands to the east.