The Beaufort Sea – Canada’s ecological treasure on the oil and gas auction block
Located north of the shores of the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Alaska’s North Slope, and west of Canada’s Arctic Islands, the Beaufort Sea extends east to west over 1,750,000 kilometers (km) from Canada’s Western Arctic to Barrow, Alaska. The Beaufort Sea is partially or fully frozen over throughout the year except for August and September, when the ice breaks near the coast and opens a 50- to 100-km wide strip of open water. During spring and summer, the Beaufort Sea is biologically rich and productivity is generally high as a result of increased sediment and fresh water loading as several smaller rivers and the massive Mackenzie River pour into the sea and deliver vast amounts of ecologically important nutrients, sediments, and freshwater.
The Beaufort Sea is important migratory habitats for various species of fishes and migratory birds. The marine mammals of the Beaufort Sea are among the most diverse in the world, including seals, polar bears, walrus, and bowhead, beluga, and gray whales. Marine mammals are integral to the culture and identity of the Iñupiat and Inuvialuit communities of Alaska and Canada as subsistence hunters have thrived along the Beaufort Sea coast for millennia.
Bowhead whale (Balaena Mysticetus) just under ice, Arctic © naturepl.com / Martha Holmes / WWF
Over the past 40 years, industrial oil and gas exploration and development has been gathering momentum in this region. This has intensified over the last few weeks, as Ottawa placed exploration rights for 905,000 hectares (an area half the size of Lake Ontario) of the northern offshore up for bids for exploration by energy companies. Almost all of these leases lie, at least in part, within federally-recognized ecologically and biologically sensitive areas, such as the Beaufort Shelf Break, Beluga Bay, Mackenzie Trough and Banks Island Flaw Lead, and the Cape Bathurst Polynya.
Icebreaker ship, Beaufort Sea, U.S.A. © Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Stock / WWF-Canada
Canada’s Oceans Act (1997) states that: “Canada promotes the wide application of the precautionary approach to the conservation, management, and exploitation of marine resources in order to protect these resources and preserve the marine environment”. The pace and degree at which exploration leases are being issued demonstrates that a precautionary approach is not being taken. And in the light of increasing industrial activity and accelerating climate-related impacts in the region, this only adds urgency to the need for planning that considers the needs to ecosystems and subsistence users prior to fully committing the highly sensitive areas to the potential risks associated with further oil and gas exploration and development.