Hudson Strait

Arm of the Atlantic Ocean leading into Hudson Bay, to the southwest, and Foxe Basin, to the northwest. Hudson Strait is 720 km/450 mi long (from northwest to southeast) and some 110–400 km/70–250 mi/ wide (including Ungava Bay in the south). North of the strait lies Baffin Island, while the Ungava Peninsula of Québec is situated to the south.

Hudson Strait is ice-free from mid-July to October, but navigable for most of the year by icebreakers. Resolution Island, which is usually fogbound, lies at the eastern mouth of the strait, near the entrance to Frobisher Bay (in the south of Baffin Island). Inuit settlements on the strait include Cape Dorset and Lake Harbour on Baffin Island, and Salluit, Kangiqsujuaq, Quaqtaq, and Ivujivik on the Ungava Peninsula. The strait was probably entered by Sebastian Cabot in 1498. Its eastern end was explored by Martin Frobisher in 1576–78, and its entire length was navigated by Henry Hudson in 1610, on his way into Hudson Bay.