Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area is a

marine protected area Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conser ...

located off the northwest coast of

Ellesmere Island Ellesmere Island ( iu, script=Latn, Umingmak Nuna, lit=land of muskoxen; french: île d'Ellesmere) is Canada's northernmost and third largest island, and the tenth largest in the world. It comprises an area of , slightly smaller than Great Bri ...

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

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

. The goal of the marine protected area is to protect the rich biodiversity and dynamism of the High Arctic sea ice ecosystem. Covering an area of , Tuvaijuittuq is the largest protected area in Canada and among the largest protected areas in the world. It is part of a large permafrost region called the

Last Ice Area The Last Ice Area is broadly the large interior polar region of the Arctic Circle covering an area between the northern edge of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and is the most northerly coastal zone of the world. Being in a permafrost ...

that covers the northern Greenland and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

History

Tuvaijuittuq was established by ministerial order under the ''Oceans Act'' for interim protection on 21 August 2019. Under the order, no new or additional human activities will be allowed to occur in the area for up to five years while the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the Government of Nunavut, and the Government of Canada work to establish long-term protection of the area. Exceptions to this rule include respecting Inuit rights to harvest wildlife under the Nunavut Agreement, scientific research, activities relating to national security and emergencies, and the safe passage of foreign ships through the region.

Geography

The northwest coast of Ellesmere Island is dominated by thick, multi-year

pack ice Drift ice, also called brash ice, is sea ice that is not attached to the shoreline or any other fixed object (shoals, grounded icebergs, etc.).Leppäranta, M. 2011. The Drift of Sea Ice. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Unlike fast ice, which is "fastene ...

created by the circulation of the Beaufort Gyre.

Ecology

Sea ice Sea ice arises as seawater freezes. Because ice is less dense than water, it floats on the ocean's surface (as does fresh water ice, which has an even lower density). Sea ice covers about 7% of the Earth's surface and about 12% of the world's o ...

provides habitat for ice-adapted organisms within the

neritic The neritic zone (or sublittoral zone) is the relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf, approximately in depth. From the point of view of marine biology it forms a relatively stable and well-illuminated ...

and

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or w ...

zones of the area, most notably ice algae. In addition,

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

communities in this area exhibits higher that expected levels of biodiversity and biological productivity.

References

{{Protected Areas of Nunavut Marine Protected Areas of Canada Nature reserves in Nunavut Protected areas established in 2019

History

Geography

Ecology

See also

References