Dolphin and Union Strait lies in both the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

(

Inuvik Region The Inuvik Region or ''Beaufort Delta Region'' is one of five administrative regions in the Northwest Territories of Canada. According to Municipal and Community Affairs the region consists of eight communities with the regional office situate ...

) and

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost Provinces and territories of Canada#Territories, territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the ''Nunavut Act'' ...

(

Kitikmeot Region Kitikmeot Region (; Inuktitut: ''Qitirmiut'' ) is an administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. It consists of the southern and eastern parts of Victoria Island with the adjacent part of the mainland as far as the Boothia Peninsula, together ...

), Canada, between the mainland and

Victoria Island Victoria Island ( ikt, Kitlineq, italic=yes) is a large island in the Arctic Archipelago that straddles the boundary between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories of Canada. It is the List of islands by area, eighth-largest island in the world, ...

. It is part of the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. The eastern route along the Arc ...

. It links

Amundsen Gulf Amundsen Gulf is a gulf located mainly in the Inuvik Region, Northwest Territories, Canada with a small section in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut. It lies between Banks Island and Victoria Island and the mainland. It is approximately in leng ...

, lying to the northwest, with

Coronation Gulf Coronation Gulf lies between Victoria Island and mainland Nunavut in Canada. To the northwest it connects with Dolphin and Union Strait and thence the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean; to the northeast it connects with Dease Strait and thence Queen M ...

, lying to the southeast. The southeastern end of the strait is marked by Austin Bay. It gets its name from the two boats used by the Scottish naval surgeon and explorer John Richardson, who was the first known European to explore it in 1826. The

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

who use this area have been variously known as the

Copper Inuit Copper Inuit, also known as Kitlinermiut and Inuinnait, are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in what is now the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest ...

, the Copper Eskimos, or the "People at the end of the world," because few other

Indigenous groups Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

had continuously used the area before. This is partly why the first Europeans who ventured into this area, were amazed by the "blond" Inuit they had encountered. There are several islands within the strait, including the Liston and Sutton Islands, historically home to the Noahonirmiut band of Copper Inuit. The strait is about long and ranges from in width. When frozen, it is used by

barren-ground caribou The barren-ground caribou (''Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus''; but subject to a recent taxonomic revision. See Reindeer: Taxomony.) is a subspecies of the reindeer (or the caribou in North America) that is found in the Canadian territories of Nu ...

, known as the Dolphin and Union herd, to reach Victoria Island for the summer and to return to the mainland for the winter.

Eider Eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks, and some other ducks and geese, are used to fill pillows and quil ...

ducks are also found in the strait. The

caribou Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

are known locally as ''tuktu'' which is understood across the circumpolar world. Conversely, eider ducks are called ''kingalik'' which means, simply, "big-nose". In recent decades, the local

Inuvialuit The Inuvialuit (sing. Inuvialuk; ''the real people'') or Western Canadian Inuit are Inuit who live in the western Canadian Arctic region. They, like all other Inuit, are descendants of the Thule who migrated eastward from Alaska Alask ...

have seen the reduction in average winter sea-ice thickness from roughly in the early 1960s to about even in the dead of winter today. There is also a preponderance of new species from flies to wasps, and new birds arriving that have never been seen before;

grizzly bear The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos horri ...

s roam where they were once that most rare curiosity.

References

Straits of the Northwest Territories Straits of Kitikmeot Region Victoria Island (Canada) {{arctic-stub