Roes Welcome Sound is an Arctic Ocean

Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

 waterway in Kivalliq Region, Nunavut

Nunavut

Nunavut is the largest and newest federal territory of Canada; it was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the Nunavut Act and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act, though the actual boundaries had been established in 1993...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is located in Foxe Basin

Foxe Basin

Not to be confused with Fox Bay, Falkland IslandsFoxe Basin is a shallow oceanic basin north of Hudson Bay, in Nunavut, Canada, located between Baffin Island and the Melville Peninsula...

 and opens north to Repulse Bay

Repulse Bay

Repulse Bay is a bay in the southern part of Hong Kong Island, located in the Southern District, Hong Kong.-Geography:Repulse Bay is located in the south of Hong Kong Island, to the east of Deep Water Bay and to the west of Middle Bay and South Bay...

. It is situated between the mainland and Southampton Island

Southampton Island

Southampton Island is a large island at the entrance to Hudson Bay at Foxe Basin. One of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Southampton Island is part of the Kivalliq Region in Nunavut, Canada. The area of the island is stated as by Statistics Canada . It is the 34th largest...

, 200 km (124.3 mi) north of Marble Island. Roes Welcome Sound measures 290 km (180.2 mi) long, and 24 kilometre wide.

It is named after Sir Thomas Roe

Thomas Roe

Sir Thomas Roe was an English diplomat of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Roe was an accomplished scholar and a patron of learning.-Life:...

, friend and sponsor of explorer Luke Fox

Luke Fox

Luke Foxe was an English explorer, born in Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire, who searched for the Northwest Passage across North America. In 1631, he sailed much of the western Hudson Bay before concluding no such passage was possible. Foxe Basin, Foxe Channel and Foxe Peninsula were named after him...

's 1631 Arctic voyage. Capt. Parry

William Edward Parry

Sir William Edward Parry was an English rear-admiral and Arctic explorer, who in 1827 attempted one of the earliest expeditions to the North Pole...

, trying to find the Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage

The Northwest Passage is a sea route through the Arctic Ocean, along the northern coast of North America via waterways amidst the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans...

 during his 1821 voyage, wrote:

"On an inspection of the charts, I think it will also appear probable that a communication will one day be found to exist between this inlet (Prince Regent's) and Hudson's Bay, either through the broad and unexplored channel called Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, or through Repulse Bay, which has not yet been satisfactorily examined."

Roes Welcome Sound is a bowhead whale

Bowhead Whale

The bowhead whale is a baleen whale of the right whale family Balaenidae in suborder Mysticeti. A stocky dark-colored whale without a dorsal fin, it can grow to in length. This thick-bodied species can weigh to , second only to the blue whale, although the bowhead's maximum length is less than...

migratory path, discussed in W. Gillies Ross' 1974 published paper, Distribution, Migration, and Depletion of Bowhead Whales in Hudson Bay, 1860 to 1915.