Southampton Island

Southampton Island within Nunavut

Closeup of Southampton Island

Satellite photo montage of Southampton Island

Southampton Island is a large island at the entrance to Hudson Bay, Canada. It is part of the Kivalliq Region of the Nunavut Territory. The area of the island is stated as 41,214 km² by Statistics Canada [1]. It is the 33rd largest island in the world and Canada's 9th largest island. The only settlement on Southampton Island is Coral Harbour (pop. 712, Canada 2001 Census), called in Inuit Salliq.

East Bay Bird Sanctuary and Harry Gibbons Bird Sanctuary are located on the island and are important breeding sites for the Lesser Snow Goose (Anser caerulescens caerulescens).

It is one of the few Canadian areas and the only area in Nunavut that does not use daylight-saving time.

Historically speaking, Southampton Island is famous for its now-extinct inhabitants, the Sadlermiut (modern Inuktitut Sallirmiut "Inhabitants of Salliq"), who were the last vestige of the Tuniit. The Tuniit, a pre-Inuit culture, officially went ethnically and culturally extinct in 1902 when an Western illness wiped out the Sallirmiut in a matter of weeks.