Good soil conditions produce abundant vegetation and support a more prolific wildlife population than other Arctic islands.

The island contains both the International Biological Program site Polar Bear Pass and Qausuittuq National Park.

The site has been occupied by the Dorset, Paleo-Eskimo and the Thule people around AD 1000, conceivably during a warmer climate episode.

[2] At the time of European arrival in the 1800s, nobody was living there, but Inuit in the region likely knew of its abundant wildlife, and possibly travelled there on hunting trips.

[4][5] The Earth's North magnetic pole tracked northwards across Bathurst and Seymour Islands during the 1960s and 1970s.