Nares Strait Nares Strait in the early 13th century, where they hunted with and traded with Vikings. Archeological remains of Thule Culture and Viking presence are found on Ruin Island. Missing 'Ice Arches' Contributed to 2007 Arctic Ice Loss Nares Strait Nares Strait (; ) is a waterway between Ellesmere Island and Greenland that is the northern part of Baffin Bay where it meets the Lincoln Sea. From south to north, the strait includes Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin and Robeson Channel. During 1962–64 a 20 km by 10 km ice island drifted southward from the Lincoln Sea through
Baffin Island to the southern part in winter, even to the Frobisher Bay peninsula, next to Resolution Island and migrate back north in the summer. In 2012, a survey of caribou herds found that the local population was only about 5000, a decrease of as much as 95% from the 1990s. Polar bears can be found all along the coast of Baffin Island, but are most prevalent where the sea ice takes the form of pack ice, where their major food sources — ringed seals (jar seal) and bearded seals — live. Polar bears mate approximately every year with from one to