Southampton Island

From Freepedia

Southampton Island is a large island at the entrance to Hudson Bay, Canada. It is part of the Kivalliq Region of the Nunavut Territory.

The area of the island is stated as 41,214 km² by Statistics Canada [1], and the only settlement is Coral Harbour (pop. 669), called in Inuit Salliq.

East Bay Bird Sanctuary and Harry Gibbons Bird Sanctuary are located on the island and are important breeding sites for the Lesser Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens caerulescens).

It is one of the few Canadian areas that do not use daylight-saving time.

Historically speaking, Southampton Island is famous for its now-extinct inhabitants, the Sadlermiut (modern Inuktitut Sallirmiut "Inhabitants of Salliq"), who were the last vestige of the Tuniit. The Tuniit, a pre-Inuit culture, officially went ethnically and culturally extinct in 1902 when an Western illness wiped out the Sallirmiut in a matter of weeks.