The Carey Islands (Danish: Carey Øer; Greenlandic: Kitsissut) are an island group off Baffin Bay, in Avannaata 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.

Carey Islands

Native name: Kitsissut
View of Björling Island
Carey Islands Carey Islands (Greenland)
Geography
Location	Baffin Bay, Greenland
Coordinates	76.666667°N 72.5°W / 76.666667; -72.5
Archipelago	Carey Islands
Total islands	6
Major islands	Nordvestø
Highest elevation	300 m (1000 ft)
Administration
Greenland
Municipality	Avannaata
Demographics
Population	uninhabited

Location of the Carey Islands

Geography

The archipelago consists of six desolate islands, a few small islets and a number of rocks awash.[1] It is located about 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the west of Thule Air Base and 50 kilometres (31 mi) to the SW of Cape Parry.[2]

The nearest settlement is Moriusaq 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 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) and a width of nearly 3 kilometres (1.9 mi). This island's western landhead is the westernmost point of Greenland. Its highest point is 225 metres (738 ft).
  • 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 300 metres (980 ft) 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.[3]

Important Bird Area

The island group has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports a breeding population of some 6,700 pairs of thick-billed murres, as well as other seabirds including glaucous gulls, razorbills, black guillemots and Atlantic puffins.[4]

History

The islands had been inhabited by the Inuit in the past; remains of their dwellings were found by Clements Markham in August 1851.[5]

The Carey Islands' were named by the 1616 Bylot-Baffin Arctic expedition after Allwin Carey, one of the financiers of the venture.[6]

Swedish naturalists Alfred Björling and Evald Kallstenius stopped at the Carey Islands in 1892 during an expedition on schooner 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.[7]

According to letters left by members of the ill-fated expedition in a cairn on the islands, the remaining four men attempted to sail their open boat 80 miles to Ellesmere Island:

Forced by bad weather to linger on this island for a long time, I now set out on the tour to the Eskimos... on Ellesmere Island. As I hope that a whaler will visit the Carey Islands next summer to rescue me and my companions, I will try to reach the islands again before July 1. We are now five men, of which one is dying.[8]

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.[8] No trace of the other four men, or the small boat, was ever found.

See also

• List of islands of Greenland
• List of countries by westernmost point
• Björling-Kallstenius Expedition
• Cape Alexander, Greenland

References

External links

• An ornithological survey of the Carey Islands

На других языках

[de] Careyinseln