Tursujuq National Park

Tursujuq National Park, whose name means "one that resembles a fjord" in Inuktitut, referring to the distinctive geographical formations of the surrounding coastline, stands as the vast largest national park in Quebec's entire network by its exceptional size, protecting a representative sample of the Hudson Cuestas and Hudson Plateau that characterize this western portion of Nunavik along the shores of Hudson Bay. The territory is home to Lake Wiyâshâkimî, Quebec's second-largest natural lake spanning 1,226 square kilometers, whose origins trace back to a double meteorite impact that occurred approximately 287 million years ago, deforming the Earth's crust to create two distinct circular basins side by side—a geological peculiarity that gives this body of water a characteristic silhouette recognizable from the air. The narrows connecting Lake Tasiujaq to Hudson Bay generate particularly strong currents that give rise to polynyas, those open water zones remaining free of ice even in the depths of winter, creating vital winter habitat for certain marine mammals that depend on this permanent opening in the sea ice to breathe and feed. The park's territory, frequented for approximately 2,800 years by the ancestors of the Inuit and Cree peoples whose distinct ways of life—the Inuit more oriented toward coastal hunting of marine mammals, the Cree toward the forested interior—historically shaped limited relations between the two peoples, today harbors 38 mammal species, 131 bird species, and 42 fish species according to available surveys.