Royal Geographical Society Islands

The Royal Geographical Society Islands are an uninhabited island group in the Kitikmeot region of Nunavut, Canada, lying at the transition from Queen Maud Gulf to Victoria Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.¹

Geography

Royal Geographical Society Island is the main island of the group. The island is classified as continental in type, meaning it was part of the mainland until separated after the last ice age, and it carries no permanent population.³

Wildlife and human use

The islands and their surrounding fast ice support Arctic wildlife through part of the annual cycle. Polar bear denning areas are found on the islands, and females with cubs hunt in spring on the nearby fast ice.² Tundra swans, Canada geese, brant, glaucous gulls, arctic terns, jaegers, king eiders, oldsquaws, and loons use the Royal Geographical Society Islands, the Nordenskiöld Islands, and the Hat Island group as habitat.²

The area also remains part of a working hunting landscape. Simpson Strait, to the east, is used from April to July as an over-ice travel route and for hunting ringed seals, and residents of Cambridge Bay and Gjoa Haven hunt polar bears and seals in the Royal Geographical Society Islands area from April to July.²

Franklin search operations

The waters around the islands lie close to the fate of Sir John Franklin's expedition. HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were locked in the ice of Victoria Strait in 1848 and eventually abandoned there.⁴ During the 2014 Victoria Strait Expedition, the ice-strengthened ship One Ocean Voyager was the only vessel of the search fleet to reach the main search area by September 3, working through sea ice between the Royal Geographical Society Islands and the target waters northwest of King William Island.⁴ When drifting ice blocked deployment of the autonomous underwater vehicle Arctic Explorer in the strait, the ship repositioned to the north side of the Royal Geographical Society Islands, where the AUV had already collected seven square kilometers of high-definition sonar images of a seabed found to be mainly hard-packed clay with deep iceberg scours.⁴

References

1. Concise Gazetteer of Canada, Natural Resources Canada (M86-16-1997-1)
2. Marine Environmental Handbook, Arctic Northwest Passage, Chapter 5: West Central Part, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
3. Island Directory: Islands of Canada, Dahl Web Site
4. One Ocean Voyager takes the Victoria Strait Expedition to the Royal Geographical Society Islands, Canadian Geographic (2014)

Initially written Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Oct 25, 2026

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