10 Amazing Beaufort Sea Facts

The Beaufort Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Alaska and west of Canada’s Arctic Islands.

It is called after hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort. The Mackenzie River, the longest river in Canada, drains into the Canadian a part of the Beaufort Sea, west of Tuktoyaktuk, one of many few everlasting settlements on the ocean’s shores. Other essential rivers that vacant into the Beaufort Sea are the Kongakut River in Alaska and the Firth River in Yukon.

Read alongside to study 10 fascinating details in regards to the Beaufort Sea.

1. Contains important petroleum and pure gasoline assets

The Beaufort Sea has many petroleum and pure gasoline reserves, such because the Amauligak area. These reserves have been discovered between the Nineteen Fifties and the Eighties, and since then, useful resource exploration has grow to be a significant exercise within the area.

It was estimated to include round 250 km3 of oil and 300,000 km3 of pure gasoline when first explored within the Nineteen Fifties. Offshore drilling commenced in 1972, and 70 wells have been up by the Eighties, which rose to 200 by 2000. Hence, round 46.5 million m3 of soil was dredged. Around 50,400 m3 of oil was produced in 1986.

Taglu Gas area was discovered within the Mackenzie River Delta in 1971, adopted by the Parson Lake and Niglintgak fields. The estimated gasoline reserves of those fields embrace 58,600 km3, 35,400 km3 and 13,600 km3.

The Amauligak area is the largest identified oil reserve of the ocean, present in 1984, and is estimated to have 37.3 km3 of oil and 38,500 km3 of gasoline. However, improvement is hindered by the distant areas of those deposits.

In 2017, the U.S Bureau of Ocean Energy Management allowed Eni, an Italian multinational oil and gasoline firm, to drill 4 oil exploration wells on Spy Island, one of many 4 synthetic islands within the Beaufort Sea.

2. Has a Complex Geography

Many rivers, just like the Kongakut River in Alaska and the Firth River in Yukon, drain into this Sea. The main river that flows into it’s the Mackenzie, additionally the longest river in Canada. Its coastal shelf is slim, particularly east of Point Barrow within the Alaskan a part of the Beaufort Sea. One main underwater function right here is submarine valleys. The Sea turns into broader close to the Mackenzie River delta however doesn’t exceed 145 km.

Closer to the coast, the depths are shallower than 60 m, however they quickly enhance northwards up to some km, turning into a giant platform just like that of oceans.

There are a number of islands within the Beaufort Sea and the Mackenzie River Delta. Some large ones lie west of the Mackenzie River, like Herschel Island, which is simply 4 km from the shore. Barter Island is 03 km from the coast and spans 13 km2. The Beaufort Sea coasts are low; most elevations vary from 250 to 750 m.

The soil stays frozen all year long, and at a depth under a metre and even much less, it types permafrost. Just a couple of centimetres thaw within the quick summers. This is why buildings are elevated above the bottom on wood piles immersed within the permafrost.

3. Border Dispute between Canada and the U.S

An ongoing border dispute between Canada and the usinvolves a wedge-shaped a part of the Beaufort Sea within the Arctic Ocean. The disputed area is named the Beaufort Sea Triangle or the Beaufort Sea Wedge. It covers an space of 21,000 sq. kilometres.

The subject centres round the place the maritime border between the 2 nations ought to be drawn within the area. Canada claims the boundary ought to be as per the 141st meridian west, and the US claims it ought to deviate barely east of that line.

The border subject is essential for Canada and the U.S. as a result of because the ice melts attributable to world warming and extra of the ocean opens for navigation, it’ll open new fishing and useful resource improvement alternatives. Control of the Beaufort Sea waters within the disputed area has financial implications for each events.

Canada and U.S have negotiated the dispute because the Nineteen Seventies. However, they failed to achieve an settlement on the identical and periodically tried to affirm their claims. The disputed wedge will not be clearly delineated on official maps issued by each.

4. No large-scale industrial fishing allowed

In 2009, the U.S Secretary of Commerce introduced a moratorium on fishing the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska. It was imposed as a result of it was argued that after world warming made these waters accessible for industrial fisheries, they might be exploited, threatening the delicate ecosystem. Hence, the necessity to develop a plan for sustainable fishing was emphasised.

There are not any widespread industrial fisheries within the waters now. This determination stirred controversies in Canada because the area the place the USA introduced the moratorium is an enormous wedge-shaped a part of the disputed waters.

Due to restricted scientific analysis and proof, the moratorium is in place to protect the area’s fish shares which might be but not totally understood. Many fish species are data-poor.

It will keep in place till extra analysis on fish populations and the ecosystem impacts are recognized. This would assist decide sustainable catch ranges if industrial fishing is allowed.

However, subsistence fishing by the native communities continues within the Beaufort Sea beneath the Moratorium since it’s on a really small scale utilizing conventional methods and has a minimal ecological footprint.

In 2014, the Government of Canada additional introduced that no industrial fisheries could be thought-about within the Beaufort Sea till analysis reveals sustainable shares that may be accessible to the Inuvialuit first.

It additionally designated elements of the Beaufort Sea as Marine Protected Areas. One such is the Anguniaqvia niqiqyuam, and it encloses the Parry Peninsula within the Amundsen Gulf. Another one is Tarium Niryutait, located on the Mackenzie River delta and estuary. These marine protected areas have been established to guard the wildlife of the area, the totally different native species and habitats for the Inuvialuit neighborhood.

5. Remains frozen all year long

The Beaufort Sea is frozen a lot of the yr, aside from August and September, when ice breaks close to its coast and opens an space that was as soon as a 50- to 100-km-wide strip of open water. In the 2000s, local weather change within the Arctic expanded the ice-free space.

Channels of Mackenzie River thaw early, in May and June. The thawing will increase the typical water discharge from 150,000 to 250,000 m3/s. Some new modifications have been recognized within the Beaufort Sea’s ice cowl in 2009. Though ice is secure, and so are water temperature and salinity, the ice construction has modified. The new ice, referred to as rotten ice, is thinner and weaker.

6. The seawater is separated into 4 distinct layers

The Beaufort Sea water has 4 totally different layers. The prime layer is 100 m, which is the floor water with a temperature of -1.4 levels Celsius in summer season and -1.8 levels Celsius in winter. The second layer is fashioned by inflows from the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, with waters coming via the Bering Strait.

The warmest and the deep Atlantic layer has a temperature between 0 and 1. The water on the backside is colder at -0.4 levels Celsius and -0.8 levels Celsius. Average salinity lies between 28-32% elements per thousand going from the south to the north. Air temperatures are -27 levels Celsius in January and 11 levels Celsius in July.

The water currents type the Beaufort Gyre, which ends up in south-westerly and westerly currents near the shores. The Mackenzie River additionally impacts this circulation, which induces minor eastward steams near its mouth. The river brings round 15 million tonnes of sediments wealthy in dolomite and calcium carbonate. Those deposits are unfold over the ocean and are combined with gravel and dust.

7. The shoreline of Beaufort Sea marks the restrict of polar bears in North America

The coast of Beaufort Sea is roofed with tundra and is the northern restrict of North America’s terrestrial vary of polar bears. The Mackenzie River is an important habitat for seabirds and whales and is untouched by industrial visitors. Its delta has many ponds and lakes inhabited by muskrats.

Around 80 species of zooplankton, over 70 species of phytoplankton and round 700 species of bryozoans, molluscs, and crustaceans; nevertheless, their inhabitants is small because of the chilly local weather.

The jap a part of the Beaufort Sea is house to Beluga whales. Their inhabitants is secure and would possibly even enhance.

It will not be affected by offshore oil exploration within the area. Belugas spends summer season within the coastal areas and the Mackenzie River delta, each ice-free at the moment. In winter, they migrate to the polynyas of the deep sea. Research reveals that the belugas of the Beaufort Sea are totally different from these of different Canadian and Alaskan waters regardless of sharing an identical habitat.

8. Has a easy meals chain

The meals chain of the Beaufort Sea is comparatively easy. It begins with algae and phytoplankton, the vitality supply for zooplankton and coastal amphipods, that are meals for fish just like the polar cod, Arctic char, and seabirds.

Polar cod is meals for arctic char, narwhal, seals and belugas. Bearded seals and walrus feed on benthic invertebrates. The Polar bear lies on the highest of the meals chain, primarily feeding on seals and enormous marine mammals.

Major fish species discovered within the Beaufort Sea embrace polar cod, arctic cod, arctic char, saffron cod, arctic cisco, lake whitefish, pacific herring, broad whitefish, inconnu, flatfish, fourhorn sculpin, and so forth.

9. Has a historical past of occupation going again to 4000 years

Evidence means that Paleo-Eskimos arrived on the Beaufort Sea coast round 4000 years in the past. There was the Dorset tradition, the Thule, and the trendy Inuit. In earlier instances, they engaged in fishing. Thousands of years previous fish bones have been present in historic settlements. The individuals lived a nomadic life and fashioned everlasting settlements a lot later.

These communities nonetheless thrive on these coasts. Their inhabitants is rising; nevertheless, there’s a lack of jobs, and youth choose to maneuver overseas for employment and higher dwelling situations.

Tuktoyaktuk, Canada and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, are two main settlements alongside the Beaufort Sea. Tuktoyaktuk is an Inuvialuit hamlet close to the delta of Mackenzie River within the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories. It is north of the Arctic Circle on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and is the one place within the Arctic related to different elements of Canada by roadways. It was often called Port Brabant after British colonisation, and in 1950, it grew to become Canada’s first indigenous settlement, which reclaimed its conventional title.

Prudhoe Bay lies in North Slope Borough within the U.S. state of Alaska. People dwelling there are often fishermen and mine employees employed within the oil firms. Most of them work on the Prudhoe Bay Oil area, the biggest oil area in North America. It lies within the coastal lowland on the Northern Slope.

Some vacationers arrive right here from Fairbanks by bus or personal automobiles to see the tundra, the midnight solar, and the Arctic Ocean. Prudhoe Bay was named by British explorer John Franklin after his classmate Captain Algernon Percy, Baron Prudhoe.

10. Has synthetic islands

Many islands lie within the Beaufort Sea. While a few of them are pure, others are synthetic and got here as much as meet the wants of the oil drilling trade. Two such man-made islands are Endicott and the North Star Islands. The former was arrange in 1987, and the latter was arrange in 2001 to allow efficient oil drilling. The crude oil is transported to Port Valdez via the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System.

The Beaufort Sea is experiencing air pollution attributable to oil spills throughout transport and oil drilling processes, harming its pristine setting. Some rivers that empties into the ocean additionally carry the chemical compounds and refuse that pollute it additional.

This has led to a decline within the marine inhabitants. Another purpose for the decline was searching, particularly of Bowhead whales, between the late Eighteen Eighties and 1914. However, legal guidelines have been delivered to cease searching because the populations of those majestic mammals declined quickly. Regulations like curbs on fishing have helped defend the threatened species within the Beaufort Sea.

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Disclaimer: The creator’s views expressed on this article don’t essentially mirror the views of Marine-Salvage. Data and charts, if used within the article, have been sourced from accessible info and haven’t been authenticated by any statutory authority. The creator and Marine-Salvage don’t declare it to be correct nor settle for any duty for a similar. The views represent solely the opinions and don’t represent any tips or suggestions on any plan of action to be adopted by the reader.

The article or photographs can’t be reproduced, copied, shared or utilized in any type with out the permission of the creator and Marine-Salvage.

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About Author

Zahra is an alumna of Miranda House, University of Delhi. She is an avid author, possessing immaculate analysis and modifying expertise. Author of a number of educational papers, she has additionally labored as a contract author, producing many technical, artistic and advertising and marketing items. A real aesthete at coronary heart, she loves books a little bit greater than the rest.

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