Sirmilik National Park and the Floe Edge

National Park Of Canada On North Baffin Island, Covering Roughly 22,000 Square Kilometres, Including Bylot Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary And The Floe Edge Of Eclipse Sound · Pond Inlet, Nunavut

For a few weeks each spring, the edge of the landfast sea ice north of Baffin Island becomes the most concentrated wildlife viewing on the continent. The Inuit call it the sinaaq, the floe edge - the line where solid ice stops and open Arctic water begins - and everything that lives in the High Arctic comes to it, because it is where the food is. Narwhal move along it in pods, tusks breaking the surface; belugas and bowheads pass; ringed seals haul out, polar bears hunt them, and the cliffs of Bylot Island behind hold one of the largest greater snow goose colonies on earth along with hundreds of thousands of murres and kittiwakes. You reach it on a sled towed behind a snowmobile, hours out from Pond Inlet across the ice, with an Inuit guide who is reading conditions the whole way. Sirmilik means place of glaciers. There are no trails, no facilities and no road.

Pond Inlet (Mittimatalik), Qikiqtaaluk Region, Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada

The park is open year round in principle and visited in practice only in season. THE FLOE EDGE SEASON IS ROUGHLY LATE MAY TO EARLY JULY, between sea ice being safe to travel on and break-up, and the exact window shifts year to year - there is no floe edge outside it. Access is by scheduled flight to POND INLET via Iqaluit, then hours by sled across sea ice with an Inuit outfitter; trips must be booked far in advance and ARE CANCELLED OR REROUTED ON ICE CONDITIONS WITHOUT APPEAL. Registration with Parks Canada is required. There are no facilities, no trails and no cell coverage.

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