Hans Island Hans Island Hans Island (; ; ; ) is a small, uninhabited barren knoll measuring , long and wide, in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait—the strait that separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland and connects Baffin Bay with the Lincoln Sea. Hans Island is the smallest of three islands in Kennedy Channel; the others are Franklin Island and Crozier Island. The strait at this point is wide, placing the island within the territorial waters of both Canada and Greenland. A theoretical line in the middle of the strait goes through the island. The island has likely
Baffin Bay the aquatic life of the bay is concentrated near that region. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of Baffin Bay as follows: The area of the bay has been inhabited since . Around 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 14th 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