The Carey Islands ( da, Carey Øer; kl, Kitsissut) are an island group off

Baffin Bay Baffin Bay ( Inuktitut: ''Saknirutiak Imanga''; kl, Avannaata Imaa; french: Baie de Baffin), located between Baffin Island and the west coast of Greenland, is defined by the International Hydrographic Organization as a marginal sea of the Arct ...

, in

Avannaata Avannaata (, da, Det Nordlige, lit=The Northern) 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 ...

municipality, northwest Greenland. 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 and to the SW of

Cape Parry Cape Parry is a headland in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located at the northern tip of the Parry Peninsula, it projects into Amundsen Gulf. The nearest settlement is Paulatuk, to the south, and Fiji Island is located to the west. Cape Par ...

. 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 north ...

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. *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.

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 ...

because it supports a breeding population of some 6,700 pairs of thick-billed murres, as well as other seabirds including

glaucous gull The glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus'') is a large gull, the second-largest gull in the world. It breeds in Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and winters south to shores of the Holarctic. The genus name is from Latin ''larus'', which a ...

s, razorbills,

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. It is the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean; two related species, the tufted puffin and the horned puffin is found in the northeastern ...

History

The islands had been inhabited by the Inuit in the past; remains of their dwellings were found by Clements Markham 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 expedition after Allwin Carey, one of the financiers of the venture.

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

naturalists Alfred Björling and

Evald Kallstenius Evald is a masculine given name found primarily in Northern Europe, especially in Denmark, Estonia, Norway and Sweden. It is a cognate of the German given name Ewald and may refer to the following individuals: * Eevald Äärma (1911–2005), Eston ...

stopped at the Carey Islands in 1892 during an expedition on

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

''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, 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 man-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 gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

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

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) 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. ...

: 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