Beaufort Sea

The Beaufort Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean,^[1] north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, west of Canada's Arctic islands. The sea is named after hydrographer Sir Francis Beaufort. The Mackenzie River empties into the Canadian part of the sea. Tuktoyaktuk is one of the few permanent settlements on the sea shores.

The sea is frozen over most of the year. Only a narrow pass up to 100 km (62 mi) opens in August–September near its shores. The seacoast was populated about 30,000 years ago. The sea has many resources of petroleum and natural gas. They were discovered between the 1950s and 1980s. People started exploring the resources in the 1980s. There is a large amount of beluga whales. The United States and Canada do not agree about the sea border.

1. ↑ John Wright (30 November 2001). The New York Times Almanac 2002. Psychology Press. p. 459. ISBN 978-1-57958-348-4. Retrieved 29 November 2010.