Ottawa Islands
Geography
The Ottawa Islands are situated on the barren and rocky east coast of Hudson Bay. By 1610 Hudson Bay had been explored and named by Henry Hudson in his quest for a Northwest Passage. It wasn't until 1631 when Luke Foxe (or Fox) on a voyage from "Vltimum Vale" (Cape Henrietta Maria), near 57° 40', indicated that "Mr. Hudson calls those islands by the name of 'Lancaster's Iles.' " According to historian T.H. Manning, there is no other record of Henry Hudson naming islands in that region. A little further north, near 58° 5', Capt. Foxe says "Wee came by a small Iland at clocke one, the highest I haue seene since I came from Brook Cobham; the deep 70 fathome. I named the Ile Sleepe." Foxe named the islands just north of Lancaster Isle, "Ile Sleepe". According to Manning, the name, having eventually changed to "Sleeper Island" or "The Sleepers", could be used "for the islands between and including Lancaster and Ottawa Islands."
Further coordinate readings
Fauna
The Ottawa Islands and the southwardly Belcher Islands are a breeding ground for "the Hudson Bay subspecies of the Common Eider". In 1765 commercial whaling of bowheads was started by Churchill-based sloops of the Hudson's Bay Company with some whales being harvested in the Ottawa Islands. The islands are important habitat for polar bears and many waterfowl. The waters surrounding the islands are important habitat for seals, walrus and bowhead and beluga whales.