Resolute Bay - ᖃᐅᓱᐃᑦᑐᖅ

Resolute Hamlet is the second most northerly community in Nunavut. The Hamlet is named after Resolute bay, which is the waterway into Parry Channel on the southern coast of Cornwallis Island, and in the middle of the Northwest Passage. As the gateway to the High Arctic, Resolute Bay is the major stopover for expeditions to the North Pole and to Quttinirtaaq National Park. The economy can be characterized as traditional subsistence activities, including hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering, integrated with wage based economic activities. The community’s hunting and fishing area includes: Wellington Channel, Barrow Strait, Cornwallis Island, Little Cornwallis Island, Devon Island, Somerset Island, and Griffith Island.

The CRN research team visited the community in March 2018. Team members held participatory mapping workshops with the Hunters and Trappers Association, Hamlet staff, Elders, and other resource users, collecting observations on coastal health and changing coastal conditions. Participants provided all data illustrated on this map.

Coastal issues included: marine pollution including the seismic testing in the 1970s; abandoned oil barrels that are leaching contaminants; and increased shipping traffic in the Northwest Passage every summer (C3- container vessels? and private yachts). Worsening ice conditions are also problem for fishing in Lancaster Sound, as the ice in the channel is thinning (due to changes in currents and wind direction) and too dangerous.

Community coastal restoration priorities included: regulations for foreign vessels entering the bay; anchorage regulations for foreign sailboats; relocation of the dump; enforcement of waste management policy for foreign vessels; and the enforcement of ballast water laws for vessels travelling through Northwest Passage.

To learn more about Resolute Bay (English version), please download our research profile here. If you would like to view the Inuktitut version of our research profile, please download here.

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