- Where
- North coast of Baffin Island
Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut - Coordinates
- 72.7000° N
77.9611° W - People
- 1,555 (2021 census)
about 86 per cent Inuit - Across the water
- Bylot Island, about 11,000 km²
uninhabited; Sirmilik National Park - Narwhals
- In Eclipse Sound mid-July to mid-October
(Fisheries and Oceans Canada) - Getting there
- By air, connecting through Iqaluit
- Best visited
- Late July to early September, when the sound is open
- Advisory
- Canada Level 1
Low houses on stilts sat on bare gravel, and across the water a whole island of white mountains stood with its glaciers pouring down between them like spilled milk. Out on the sound, loose ice drifted past and kept drifting. Near midnight the sun had still not gone down, so I perched on a rock by the shore, and something dark broke the water twice and was gone.
The short answer
Pond Inlet is a small, predominantly Inuit community in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, on the northern tip of Baffin Island. The 2021 census counted 1,555 people, 1,335 of them Inuit, and Wikipedia describes it as the largest community in northern Baffin Island, with mountains visible on all sides, and quotes its nickname, the “Jewels of the North”. It faces Eclipse Sound, Tasiujaq in Inuktitut, about 25 kilometres across by Parks Canada’s figure. On the far side is Bylot Island: 11,067 square kilometres by Wikipedia’s count, uninhabited, though Inuit from Pond Inlet travel there regularly, and almost all of it inside Sirmilik National Park.
Why it's worth knowing
Two names. For local Inuit, Wikipedia records, the name of the place “is and always has been Mittimatalik”: “the place where Mittima is buried”. Nunavut’s tourism pages describe Mittima as an unknown ancient person presumed to be buried here. The English name came off the sea. The explorer John Ross named the arm of the sea between Bylot Island and Baffin Island Pond’s Bay in 1818, after the Astronomer Royal John Pond, and when the Hudson’s Bay Company opened a trading post beside an Inuit camp on 29 August 1921, it called the post Pond Inlet. Archaeologists, Wikipedia adds, trace four thousand years of hunting and fishing here, by pre-Dorset, Dorset and Thule peoples and the Inuit.
The sound in summer. Fisheries and Oceans Canada says narwhals spend up to three months a year in the Eclipse Sound area, from about mid-July to mid-October, and its 2013 survey estimate for the Eclipse Sound stock was about 10,500; Pond Inlet is the community that hunts from it under the federal management plan. The sea is free of ice for up to three and a half months, Wikipedia records, when cruise ships call and cargo arrives by sealift. Pond Inlet’s hunters’ organisation and its hamlet council have pressed for closer scrutiny of plans to expand shipping from the Mary River iron mine’s port in Milne Inlet through those same waters, Wikipedia reports.
The field notes
Across the water
Bylot Island’s mountains are part of the Byam Martin range, with Angilaaq Mountain at 1,951 metres near its centre, and glaciers run down from its ice caps between the peaks. Its cliffs hold, by Wikipedia’s figures, some 300,000 thick-billed murres and 80,000 black-legged kittiwakes, and its lowlands a large colony of greater snow geese; the eastern part has been a federal migratory bird sanctuary since the 1960s (Wikipedia gives both 1962 and 1965). Sirmilik National Park, whose Inuktitut name Wikipedia gives as “the place of glaciers”, covers most of the island along with parts of Baffin Island’s Borden Peninsula and Oliver Sound.
In town
The Nattinnak Visitor Centre stands on the waterfront, looking across the sound to Bylot Island, and shares its building with the Rebecca P. Idlout library; Nunavut’s tourism pages say it is open all year and run by the Hamlet. Wikipedia records that it showcases Pond Inlet’s artists and offers walking tours of the hamlet and visits to the Qilaukat Thule site near the Salmon River. The Tununiq Sauniq Co-operative, founded in 1968, runs a grocery store and the largest hotel. Fresh fruit, vegetables and milk are flown in several times a week from Montreal, about 3,000 kilometres south.
The hamlet below Bylot Island's peaks, August 1997.
Photograph: Ansgar Walk · Pond Inlet 1997-08-12 · CC BY-SA 2.5 · cropped
A Bylot Island glacier spreading onto the coastal plain, July 2012.
Photograph: Mike Beauregard · Bylot Island Glacier · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
Purple saxifrage flowering in sand on Bylot Island, June 1995.
Photograph: Ansgar Walk · Bylot Purple Saxifrage 1995-06-13 · CC BY-SA 2.5 · cropped
A stop sign in Inuktitut syllabics and English, with Bylot's peaks behind, July 2022.
Photograph: Emilijak Knezevic · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
- Fit every season into the one bag, then pack patience on top. The small planes north wait for the weather, and so will you.
- A person, a dog, or anything somebody has hunted: ask, every time, before the camera comes out.
- Sit on the shore after supper and watch the island across the water. I wrote that down as an evening’s item, and the evening never ended, so neither did the item.
- Walk where the town walks, and ask locally before going any farther. The bears do not keep to the map.
- Go into the centre on the waterfront and ask what the mountains across the sound were called long before any map. Write each name down with care.
A Bylot Island glacier. One of the many glaciers that run down between the peaks of Bylot Island, across Eclipse Sound from the hamlet, from ice caps on the Byam Martin Mountains to the coastal plain; almost all of the island lies in Sirmilik National Park, whose Inuktitut name Wikipedia gives as “the place of glaciers”. From Pond Inlet the glaciers are seen across the water; going closer is a boat trip, with Parks Canada’s registration first.
Tally, in the marginIt looked perfectly still from the shore all evening. Only when I came back the next morning and found it looking exactly the same did I begin to suspect it of moving.
Getting there
How to get there. By air. Travel Nunavut lists daily flights between Ottawa and Iqaluit and regular flights from Montreal and other southern cities; from Iqaluit, connecting flights on smaller aircraft go on to Pond Inlet Airport, which Wikipedia describes as the readiest way in. Canadian North serves Pond Inlet and asks passengers to re-confirm their flight times. In the ice-free summer, expedition cruise ships also call.
When to go. Late July to early September, when the sound is open water: Parks Canada says that in those weeks Sirmilik National Park is reached only by boat. Fisheries and Oceans Canada puts the narwhals in the sound from mid-July to mid-October. Winters are long and dark; Wikipedia gives February’s daily mean as −33 °C and July’s as 7 °C.
What to arrange ahead. A bed before you fly, and a spare day at each end: Travel Nunavut warns that weather often delays or cancels flights between communities. To cross to Bylot Island, Parks Canada asks visitors to Sirmilik National Park to contact its office in Pond Inlet and attend a mandatory orientation and registration, and boats go with local operators and guides; that is a separate trip, and this entry describes the hamlet and the view.
Safety. The State Department has Canada at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level (5 June 2026), with no areas singled out. The hazards are the place’s own: cold in every month, weather that grounds planes, and polar bears, which Parks Canada says may be met anywhere in the park and most often along the coast. Go beyond the hamlet with a local guide.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Pond Inlet?
Pond Inlet is an Inuit hamlet on the northern tip of Baffin Island in the Qikiqtaaluk Region of Nunavut, Canada, facing Bylot Island across Eclipse Sound. The 2021 census counted 1,555 people in Pond Inlet, 1,335 of them Inuit.
What does Mittimatalik mean?
Mittimatalik, the Inuktitut name of Pond Inlet, means “the place where Mittima is buried”, according to Wikipedia. Nunavut’s tourism pages describe Mittima as an unknown ancient person presumed to be buried there. For local Inuit, Wikipedia records, the place has always been Mittimatalik.
Why is it called Pond Inlet?
The explorer John Ross named the arm of the sea between Bylot Island and Baffin Island Pond’s Bay in 1818, after the Astronomer Royal John Pond. The Hudson’s Bay Company named its trading post Pond Inlet when it opened beside an Inuit camp on 29 August 1921, and the hamlet kept the name.
How do you get to Pond Inlet?
By air. Travellers fly from Ottawa or Montreal to Iqaluit, Nunavut’s capital, then take a connecting flight on a smaller aircraft to Pond Inlet Airport; Canadian North serves the route. Travel Nunavut warns that weather often delays or cancels flights between Nunavut communities.
What is Bylot Island?
Bylot Island is an uninhabited Arctic island of about 11,067 square kilometres across Eclipse Sound from Pond Inlet, Nunavut. Almost all of it lies in Sirmilik National Park, its cliffs hold large seabird colonies, and Inuit from Pond Inlet travel there regularly.
When can you see narwhals near Pond Inlet?
Fisheries and Oceans Canada says narwhals spend up to three months each year in the Eclipse Sound area near Pond Inlet, from about mid-July to mid-October. Its 2013 estimate for the Eclipse Sound narwhal stock was about 10,500 animals.
Do you need a permit to visit Bylot Island from Pond Inlet?
Most of Bylot Island is in Sirmilik National Park. Parks Canada asks visitors to contact the park office in Pond Inlet and attend a mandatory orientation and registration before entering, and in summer the park is reached only by boat with local operators and guides.
Are there polar bears near Pond Inlet?
Yes. Parks Canada says polar bears may be met anywhere in Sirmilik National Park, across Eclipse Sound from Pond Inlet, with the greatest chance along the coasts, and it restricts summer access to high-density bear areas on the northern coasts of Bylot Island and the Borden Peninsula.