Overview - Nunavut
One of the richest marine areas in the Arctic Ocean, Lancaster Sound is home to a variety of Seals, Walrus, and Whales as well as a thriving diversity of small aquatic life. An important migratory corridor for marine mammals and seabirds alike, the sound plays host literally hundreds of thousands of nesting birds every spring. The wealth of Arctic cod in the sound provides a broad base for the area's food chain, feeding the whales, seals, waterfowl and seabirds that inhabit the ice edge. Though there are no human settlements on the coast of Lancaster Sound, Inuit hunters from the surrounding regions rely on the sound's thriving ecosystem for sustenance.

Stretching from the Devon Islands at its northernmost point to the Baffin Islands in the south and joining the Barrow Straight northeast of Somerset Island, Lancaster Sound is the eastern gateway to every feasible route through the Northwest Passage. Though the first single-season voyage across the passage was achieved in 1944, these seas remain closed to regular commercial shipping, protecting the diverse marine life and the surrounding Inuit communities from the profound environmental and cultural impact of heavy maritime traffic.