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 Island in the middle of the island, has been retreating since at least the early 1960s, when the Geographical Branch of the then-Department of Mines and Technical Surveys sent a three-man survey team to the area to measure isostatic rebound and cross-valley features of the Isortoq River. Conversely, in the 1970s parts of Baffin Island failed to have the usual ice-free period in the summer. The island has been continuously inhabited by Inuit peoples for centuries. In September 2008, "Nunatsiaq News" reported that a team led by Dr. Patricia Sutherland of the Canadian Museum of Civilization had found archaeological remains of