The Carey Islands (; ) are an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

group off

Baffin Bay Baffin Bay (Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; ; ; ), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes considered a s ...

, in

Avannaata Avannaata (, ) is a municipality of Greenland created on 1 January 2018 from the bulk of the former Qaasuitsup municipality. It encompasses an area of 522,700 km2 and has 10,726 inhabitants. Geography In the south, Avannaata is flanked ...

municipality, northwest

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

. Located relatively far offshore the Carey Islands are the westernmost point of Greenland as a territory. The sea surrounding the islands is clogged by ice most of the year.

Geography

The archipelago consists of six desolate islands, a few small islets and a number of rocks awash. It is located about to the west of

Thule Air Base Pituffik Space Base ( ; ; ), formerly Thule Air Base (), is a United States Space Force base located on the northwest coast of Greenland in the Kingdom of Denmark under a defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. 150 United Stat ...

and to the SW of Cape Parry. The nearest settlement is

Moriusaq Moriusaq (also ''Moriussaq'') is a closed settlementStatistics GreenlandPopulation in localities/ref> located in the Avannaata municipality in northern Greenland. It is located just east of the mouth of Granville Fjord, approximately to the nort ...

to the east on the coast of Greenland, abandoned since 2007.

Islands

Main islands

*Nordvestø, Isbjørneø and Mellemø form a compact cluster at the NW end of the archipelago. **Nordvestø, the biggest island with a length of and a width of nearly . This island's western landhead is the westernmost point of Greenland. Its highest point is . **Isbjørneø and Mellemø, lying close to the east and forming a natural harbour between them and Nordvestø. *Bordø and Björlingø, located further to the east; the latter has a high peak and is named after

Johan Alfred Björling Johan Alfred Björling (19 October 1871 – 1892/1893) was a Swedish botanist and Arctic explorer. He led the ill-fated Swedish NW Greenland Expedition, also known as Björling–Kallstenius Expedition, in 1892. Life Björling was born on 19 ...

. *Fireø, lying in the southern area of the group.

Islets

*Hollænderhatten and Tyreøjet are two small islets to the east of Fireø having a diameter of a few hundred metres. there are also numerous other islets and rocks, especially in the western sector of the archipelago.

Climate

Important Bird Area

The island group has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports a breeding population of some 6,700 pairs of

thick-billed murre The thick-billed murre or Brünnich's guillemot (''Uria lomvia'') is a bird in the auk family (Alcidae). This bird is named after the Danish zoologist Morten Thrane Brünnich. The very deeply black North Pacific subspecies ''Uria lomvia arra'' i ...

s, as well as other seabirds including

glaucous gull The glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus'') is a large gull, the second-largest gull in the world. The genus name is from Latin , which appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird. The specific name is Latin for "northern" from the A ...

razorbill The razorbill (''Alca torda'') is a North Atlantic colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus ''Alca (bird), Alca'' of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (''Pinguinus impennis' ...

black guillemot The black guillemot or tystie (''Cepphus grylle'') is a medium-sized seabird of the Alcidae family, native throughout northern Atlantic coasts and eastern North American coasts. It is resident in much of its range, but large populations from the ...

s and

Atlantic puffin The Atlantic puffin ('), also known as the common puffin, is a species of seabird in the auk family (biology), family. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin being found ...

History

The islands had been inhabited by the

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

in the past; remains of their dwellings were found by

Clements Markham Sir Clements Robert Markham (20 July 1830 – 30 January 1916) was an English geographer, explorer and writer. He was secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) between 1863 and 1888, and later served as the Society's president fo ...

in August 1851.Clements Robert Markham: ''Franklin’s footsteps''. Chapman and Hall, London 1853
p. 115
The Carey Islands' were named by the 1616 Bylot- Baffin

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

expedition after Allwin Carey, one of the financiers of the venture. Swedish

naturalists Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Alfred Björling Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interlu ...

and Evald Kallstenius stopped at the Carey Islands in 1892 during an expedition on

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

''Ripple'' to pick up supplies at a cache there. The ''Ripple'', however, was driven on shore and wrecked. The men attempted to sail a small sloop back to

Etah Etah () is a city in the western part of Uttar Pradesh, India, and the administrative headquarters of Etah District. The nearest major cities are Aligarh and Agra. Located approximately 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Agra and about 25 mile ...

, but were forced to return to the Carey Islands. According to letters left by members of the ill-fated expedition in a

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

on the islands, the remaining four men attempted to sail their open boat 80 miles to

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island (; ) is Canada's northernmost and List of Canadian islands by area, third largest island, and the List of islands by area, tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of , slightly smaller than Great Britain, and the total ...

: In June 1893, the crew of the Scottish whaler ''Aurora'' spotted a wreck on the Carey Islands. They found the ''Ripple'', a man's body buried under a pile of stones, and Björling's letters. No trace of the other four men, or the small boat, was ever found.

References

{{reflist, 2

External links

An ornithological survey of the Carey Islands
Islands of Greenland Avannaata Important Bird Areas of Greenland Important Bird Areas of Arctic islands Seabird colonies