{{Short description|Island in Nunavut, Canada}} {{Use Canadian English|date=May 2024}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox islands | name = Coats Island | image_name = | image_caption = Coats Island, Nunavut | image_size = | map_image = CoatsIslandCloseup.png | pushpin_map = Canada Nunavut#Canada | native_name = ᐊᑉᐸᑑᕐᔪᐊᖅ<Br/>Appatuurjuaq | native_name_link = Inuktitut | nickname = | location = [[Hudson Bay]] | coordinates = {{coord|62|30|N|083|00|W|notes=<ref>{{Cite cgndb|OADOY|Coats Island|access-date=May 21, 2023}}</ref>|display=inline,title|region:CA-NU_type:isle_scale:5000000|name=Coats Island}} | archipelago = | total_islands = | major_islands = | area_km2 = 5498 | highest_mount = {{cvt|185|m}} | elevation_m = | country = Canada | country_admin_divisions_title = [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Nunavut]] | country_admin_divisions = [[Nunavut]] | country_admin_divisions_title_1 = [[Regions of Nunavut|Region]] | country_admin_divisions_1 = [[Kivalliq Region|Kivalliq]] | population = Uninhabited | population_as_of = | density_km2 = | ethnic_groups = }} '''Coats Island''' ({{langx|iu|ᐊᑉᐸᑑᕐᔪᐊᖅ|Appatuurjuaq}})<ref>[https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1Eyxtb4zFHDyZCPIySi00Mx1b4Y8&ll=64.12058201224147%2C-83.71142055000003&z=7 INUIT HERITAGE TRUST. Place Names Program. Coral Harbour Traditional Place Names]</ref> lies at the northern end of [[Hudson Bay]] in the [[Kivalliq Region]] of [[Nunavut]]. At {{cvt|5498|km2}} in size, it is the [[List of islands by area|107th largest island in the world]], and [[List of Canadian islands by area|Canada's 24th largest island]].
The island has areas of federal [[crown land]] and areas of private land owned by [[Inuit]], however, the last permanent residents left in the 1970s.<ref name="iba">{{cite web|url=http://www.bsc-eoc.org/iba/site.jsp?siteID=NU005|title=Coats Island|publisher=bsc-eoc.org|access-date=2009-05-05|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612101722/http://www.bsc-eoc.org/iba/site.jsp?siteID=NU005|archive-date=2011-06-12}}</ref> With no permanent settlements, the island is also the largest uninhabited island in the northern hemisphere fully south of the [[Arctic Circle]]. It was the last home of the [[Sadlermiut]] people who are widely believed to represent the [[Dorset culture]].
==Geography== [[File:Coats Island 2019-08-23 Sentinel-2 L2A True color.jpg|thumb|left|Satellite image of Coats Island, 2019]] Coats Island is {{cvt|130|km}} long. It reaches a maximum elevation of {{cvt|185|m}} above sea level. This high point occurs along the rocky northern perimeter between [[Cape Pembroke (Nunavut)|Cape Pembroke]] and Cape Prefontaine. The underlying rocks in this area are Precambrian metamorphics. Less than 5 per cent of the island is more than {{cvt|100|m}} above sea level. The southern half of the island is primarily low-lying [[muskeg]] and made up of [[Paleozoic]] sedimentary rocks, such as limestone and sandstone. {{Clear left}}
==Fauna== Since 1920, Coats Island has been designated a [[Reindeer|caribou]] reserve. After caribou were extirpated from nearby [[Southampton Island]], the Coats herd was used to re-establish the Southampton herd. It is also known for its population of [[thick-billed murre]]. Two colonies of 30,000 birds occur along the cliffs at the rocky northern end. There are also significant concentrations of [[walrus]] at walrus haulouts at the base of cliffs or on offshore islands at the northern end of the island (one each at [[Cape Pembroke (Nunavut)|Cape Pembroke]] and [[Cape Prefontaine]]). These are visited regularly by Inuit from the hamlet at [[Coral Harbour]], on Southampton Island, for harvesting.
Cape Pembroke is an [[Important Bird Area]].<ref>{{cite web |title=IBA Site Listing: Coats Island/Cape Pembroke |url=https://www.ibacanada.org/site.jsp?siteID=NU005 |website=www.ibacanada.org |publisher=IBA Canada |access-date=17 November 2025}}</ref>
==History== The first recorded sighting of Coats Island by Europeans was in 1612 by [[Thomas Button]]; he explored it further the following year.<ref name=Christy>{{cite book | last = Christy | first = Miller | title = The voyages of Captain Luke Foxe of Hull, and Captain Thomas James of Bristol, in search of a northwest passage, in 1631-32; with narratives of the earlier northwest voyages of Frobisher, Davis, Weymouth, Hall, Knight, Hudson, Button, Gibbons, Bylot, Baffin, Hawkridge, and others | publisher = Hakluyt Society | date = 1894 | location = London | url = https://archive.org/details/voyagescaptainl01wattgoog| quote = related:STANFORD36105004846502. }}</ref> It received its name from William Coats, a sea captain for the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. He visited the area periodically between 1727 and 1751.
In 1824, [[HMS Griper (1813)|HMS ''Griper'']], under Captain [[George Francis Lyon]], anchored off [[Cape Pembroke (Nunavut)|Cape Pembroke]] on Coats Island. The [[whaling|whalers]] then discovered a band of "[[Eskimo]]s" who were said to have spoken a "strange dialect" and were called ''[[Sadlermiut]]''.<ref name="Nunatsiaq">{{cite news |url=http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut020705/news/editorial/columns.html#nunani_july26 |title=In the bones of the world (Part eight) |work=Nortext Publishing Corporation (Iqaluit) |publisher=Nunatsiaq News |date=2002-07-26 |access-date=2005-03-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050328183720/http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/nunavut020705/news/editorial/columns.html#nunani_july26 |archive-date=2005-03-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Since then, the Sadlermiut continued to establish contact with Westerners. However, as with many North American [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Indigenous peoples]], the Sadlermiut were often susceptible to Western diseases.
The area was confirmed to be an island by American whalers, who began visiting the area in the 1860s. By 1896, there were only 70 of Sadlermiut remaining. Then, in the fall of 1902, the British trading and whaling<ref name="LAC">{{cite web| publisher=[[Library and Archives Canada]]| title=Aboriginal 7 - Life in Canada| url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/art/050602/0506020222_e.html| access-date=2008-03-21| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://archive.today/20120804215759/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/art/050602/0506020222_e.html| archive-date=2012-08-04}}</ref> vessel named the ''Active'' had made a stop at Cape Low,<ref name="Collins">{{cite book | publisher=National Geographic Magazine | title=Vanished Mystery Men of Hudson Bay | first=Henry B. | last=Collins | volume=CX No. 5 | year=1956 | page=674}}</ref> Southampton Island. It is said that some of the Sadlermiut caught a disease, possibly [[influenza]],<ref name="Rooms">{{cite web| first=M.A.P.| last=Renouf| publisher=The Rooms| title=Museum Notes - Palaeoeskimo in Newfoundland & Labrador| url=http://www.therooms.ca/museum/mnotes5.asp| date=Fall 1991| access-date=2008-03-21| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430095710/http://www.therooms.ca/museum/mnotes5.asp| archive-date=2008-04-30}}</ref> [[Typhoid fever|typhoid]] or [[typhus]], from a sick sailor aboard the ''Active'', which then spread to the entire community.<ref name="Nunatsiaq"/><ref name="arrive">{{cite web | publisher=[[The Free Library]] | title=The People Arrive| url =http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+People+Arrive.(history+of+the+Inuit)-a057040631| date=1999-03-01 | access-date=2008-03-22}}</ref> By winter 1902–03, the entire Sadlermiut population had died as a result.<ref name="LAC"/><ref name="TCE">{{cite web | first=Jean L. | last=Briggs | author2=J. Garth Taylor | publisher=Historica Foundation of Canada | title=The Canadian Encyclopedia: Sadlermiut Inuit | url=http://www.encyclopediecanadienne.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007041 | access-date=2008-03-21 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081020052907/http://www.encyclopediecanadienne.ca/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007041 | archive-date=2008-10-20 | url-status=dead }}</ref>
A [[trading post]] operated by the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] was opened on the island in September 1918, supplied from [[Kimmirut|Lake Harbour]] and [[Cape Wolstenholme|Wolstenholme]].<ref name=HBC>{{cite web |title=Hudson's Bay Company: Coats Island |url=https://pam.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PAM_AUTHORITY/AUTH_DESC_DET_REP/SISN%201544?sessionsearch |website=pam.minisisinc.com |publisher=Archives of Manitoba - Keystone Archives Descriptive Database |access-date=2025-11-17}}</ref> A number of [[Inuit]] families lived on the island during that period, some of whom had been brought from [[Baffin Island]] on boats.
In 1921, an overturned fisherman's [[Dory (boat)|dory]] covering two skeletons was found by Captain George Cleveland on Coats Island which were alleged to be the remains of Captain Arthur Gibbons and one of his officers, survivors of the wreck of the American whaling schooner ''[[A. T. Gifford]]''.<ref>Boston Daily Globe, September 21, 1923, p.7.</ref> The Canadian Government held a criminal investigation.<ref>[http://mikan3.archives.ca/pam/public_mikan/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=880887&rec_nbr_list=880887 Description Full Display]{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} - Search Archives - Library and Archives Canada</ref>
In 1925, the island was over-hunted and the HBC post closed, after which the remaining Inuit were relocated to [[Southampton Island]].<ref name="HBC" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category-inline}}
{{Islands of the Kivalliq Region}} {{Subdivisions of Nunavut}}
[[Category:Islands of Hudson Bay]] [[Category:Uninhabited islands of the Kivalliq Region]] [[Category:Hudson's Bay Company trading posts in Nunavut]] [[Category:Former populated places in the Kivalliq Region]] [[Category:1970s disestablishments in the Northwest Territories]] [[Category:Populated places disestablished in the 1970s]]