Koksoak River
The
Koksoak River (in French,
rivière Koksoak) is the largest
river in
Nunavik,
Québec,
Canada. The name of the
Inuit village and administrative center that lies on the shores of the Koksoak,
Kuujjuaq, translates as "great river."
Koksoak is believed to be an earlier written form of this
Inuktitut word.
The Koksoak River arises at the confluence of its two main tributaries, the
Rivière aux Mélèzes to the west and the
Caniapiscau River to the south. The Koksoak River flows for about 100 km in an east-northeasterly direction into
Ungava Bay, and passes by the village of Kuujjuaq, which lies about 50 km from the coast. The total length of the Koksoak River and its main tributary, the Caniapiscau River, is appoximately 874 kilometres (543 miles) and the size of the drainage basin is about 133,000 square kilometres. However, the upper waters of the Canaipiscau River were diverted in 1985 to the
La Grande hydroelectric complex and about 45 % of the waterflow of the Caniapiscau now flows through the
Caniapiscau Reservoir and on into
James Bay in the west. The catchment area of the Caniapiscau Reservoir is about 36,800 square kilometres.
The Koksoak river has an estimated mean discharge of approximately 55km
3 of water per year - though the absence of long streamgauging records means accurate data are not available. Most of the flow occurs during the early
summer when the
ice on the river thaws and
snow in the Canadian Shield melts. The Koksoak River lies on the boundary between the northern limit of the
boreal forest and the vast tundra expanses of the
Ungava Peninsula to the north. All the Koksoak basin is covered with
permafrost - discontinuous in the south and continuous in the north.
Although hunting activities and administrative services are a mainstay of life in Kuujjuaq, adventure
tourism is expanding, centered mostly on
caribou hunting as well as salmon, trout and arctic char fishing.
*
Nunavik Tourism Association*
Kativik Regional Government
