This area boasts the world’s largest glass sponge reefs, delicate marine animals with skeletons made of silica (glass). The four reefs in Hecate Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound are 9,000 years old and provide shelter for many marine species as well as play important roles in nutrient cycles. Prior to their discovery in 1987, scientists believed glass sponges had gone extinct worldwide some 40 million years ago.

—> Read more about these glass sponge reefs

Stein Valley 

Spanning the entire Stein River watershed, this potential World Heritage Site encompasses the cultural landscape for the Nlaka’pamux people. It provides traditional foods and medicines for the Nlaka’pamux, and is a place of spiritual importance featuring prominently in their creation stories and oral histories.

Wanuskewin Heritage Park

For millennia, peoples inhabiting North America’s Great Plains region have gathered at Wanuskewin. This sacred site contains a complete record of cultural development spanning from 6,400 years ago to the present day and includes bison jumps, medicine wheels, tipi rings and other sites. First Nations of the Plains continue to gather and use the site, and people from other cultures come to learn more about this heritage.

—> Read more about Wanuskewin Heritage Park

Anticosti Island

This island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River is the best location in the world for studying fossils and geology from the Ordovician-Silurian period, more than 400 million years ago. This period is significant, since it marks the first existence of life on land as well as the first mass extinction event. Anticosti Island offers insight into the changes in climate and sea levels that contributed to the mass extinction.

Heart’s Content Cable Station Provincial Historic Site

This site marks the location of the first trans-oceanic telegraph cable in 1866, connecting North America to Europe (Valentia Bay, Ireland). It marks a milestone in global communication, and the nautical mile submarine cable that transmitted the first trans-ocean message is a feat of science and engineering.

—> Read more about the cable station

Qajartalik

Nearly 180 faces were carved into the rocks at Qajartalik by the Dorset people, the ancestors of the Inuit, between 2,200 and 1,000 years ago. The faces are believed to be connected to the Dorset’s magico-religious beliefs. These petroglyphs are the most northerly in the world and are completely unique. 

Sirmilik National Park and the proposed Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area

The national park and proposed marine conservation area spans the northern tip of Baffin Island, Bylot Island and Tallurutiup Imanga (Lancaster Sound). The region protects one of the most productive Arctic coastal regions in the world and important hunting grounds for the Inuit. Tallurutiup Imanga remains ice-free year round and is a nutrient-rich polar oasis for Arctic marine species, while the land is an important nesting site for seabirds and also possesses many archeological sites related to the Thule and Inuit peoples.

—> Read more about the proposed national marine conservation area

Yukon Ice Patches