Baffin Island Baffin Island Baffin Island ( , ), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is and its population is about 11,000 (2007 estimate). It is located 65.4215 N and 70.9654 W. Named after English explorer William Baffin, it is likely that the island was known to Pre-Columbian Norse explorers from Greenland and Iceland and that it was the location of "Helluland", spoken of in the Icelandic sagas (the Grœnlendinga saga and the Saga of Erik the Red, Eiríks saga rauða). Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, is
Foveaux Strait strait is about 130 km long (from Ruapuke Island to Little Solander Island), and it widens (from 14 km at Ruapuke Island to 50 km at Te Waewae Bay) and deepens (from 20 to 120 m) from east to west. The strait lies within the continental shelf area of New Zealand, and was probably dry land during the Pleistocene epoch. Captain Cook sighted Foveaux Strait during his circumnavigation of the South Island in March 1770, but decided to hide it. He was operating during the period of intense Anglo-French rivalry that filled the twelve years between Britain's success in the