Barrow Canyon

Barrow Canyon is a submarine canyon that straddles the boundary between the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Compared to other nearby areas and the Canada Basin, the highly productive Barrow Canyon supports a diversity of marine animals and invertebrates.

Starting roughly 95 miles west of Barrow, Alaska, Barrow Canyon stretches 150 miles along the coast, crossing into the Beaufort Sea north of Point Barrow. The canyon is roughly 15 miles wide, and reaches depths up to 1,200 feet below the surrounding cliffs and peaks.

Due to the region’s high primary productivity and high biomass of zooplankton and benthic invertebrates, Barrow Canyon is an important foraging area and concentrated migration passageway for marine mammals and birds following openings in the sea ice. Bowhead and beluga whales travel through the canyon during the spring and fall migrations. The corridor is likely used by many bird species migrating to the North Slope for summer breeding.

Several species of birds, including yellow-billed loons, spectacled eiders, king eiders, Arctic terns, black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous and Sabine's gulls, long-tailed ducks, and red phalaropes, rely on areas near the shoreline along the canyon for foraging.

Many species of marine mammals are found in Barrow Canyon throughout the year. As offshore sea ice melts, Pacific walrus rely on coastal habitat for haulouts and on the region’s rich seafloor for foraging.Beluga whales, polar bears, bowhead whales, and several species of seals, including spotted seals, bearded seals, and ringed seals, also rely on this region as an important feeding area.Gray whales cluster at the mouth of Barrow Canyon where there are large concentrations of zooplankton.

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