Eclipse Sound to the southeast and Navy Board Inlet to the southwest separate it from Baffin Island.

The island's north shore, facing Lancaster Sound, is a polar bear maternity den area.

[3] In the 2000s, Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation, began to develop a tote road from its Mary River Mine, and harbour infrastructure in Milne Bay—a small, shallow arm of at the confluence of Eclipse Sound and Navy Board Inlet which separates Bylot Island from Baffin Island.

Almost all of the island is located within Sirmilik National Park, harbouring large populations of thick-billed murres, black-legged kittiwakes and greater snow geese.

[1][7][8] In 2010, a painting of Bylot Island titled "Bylot Island I" by Lawren Harris, one of the Group of Seven mid-century Canadian artists, was sold at auction for $2.8 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for a work by a Canadian artist.