Hudson Bay is a vast inland sea in northeast Canada. It covers about 316,500 square miles (819,731 square kilometers), more than three times the combined area of the Great Lakes. The bay, together with its southern arm, James Bay, is about 1,050 miles (1,690 kilometers) long and 695 miles (1,118 kilometers) wide. It has an average depth of 330 feet (100 meters). Hudson Bay is part of the Arctic Ocean.
The land around the northern shore of the bay is part of a cold, flat, treeless area called a tundra. Forests grow to the south, and high, rocky bluffs rise on the east. In the west are flat, wet areas called bogs.
Shipping is the only important commercial activity on Hudson Bay. In most years, the shipping season lasts from mid-July to mid-October. The bay is largely free of ice during this period. Vessels enter and leave the bay through the Hudson Strait. They carry a variety of cargoes, including beef products and grain. Churchill, Manitoba, a grain-exporting center at the mouth of the Churchill River, is the main port on the bay. The Hudson Bay Railway links Churchill with the cattle and grain regions of western Canada. Although Churchill has only about 900 people, it is one of the largest communities on the bay.
Inuit (formerly called Eskimos) and Indians were the first people who lived near Hudson Bay. Today, the Inuit live chiefly in small, widely separated communities in the tundra. Most of the Indians live on the southern end of the bay, near Churchill and James Bay. Many Inuit and Indians in the bay area work in construction or retail trade. Others work for government agencies. Still other Inuit and Indians fish and hunt for a living.
Hudson Bay was named for the English explorer Henry Hudson, who reached it in 1610. In 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company, one of the earliest and largest fur-trading companies in North America, was founded by English merchants. The company eventually acquired full land and trading rights in the Hudson Bay area. This area included the bay and all of the lands drained by rivers that flowed into the bay. In 1870, the Canadian government purchased this territory from the Hudson’s Bay Company and made it part of Canada.
Little development occurred in the bay area until 1971. That year, the province of Quebec began to construct a group of hydroelectric stations on La Grande River, which flows into James Bay, as part of a major development project. The construction, which took place between 1971 and 1996, involved the building of 11 dams and 8 power stations.
