Harrison Bay is an

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

located north of Alaska that opens into the

Beaufort Sea The Beaufort Sea (; french: Mer de Beaufort, Iñupiaq: ''Taġiuq'') is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located north of the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, and Alaska, and west of Canada's Arctic islands. The sea is named after Sir Fr ...

. It is adjacent to the Colville Delta. The powerful outflow of the Colville River creates a shallow region that is rich with nutrients, making it ecologically significant for wildlife.

Geography

Harrison Bay is bordered by Cape Halkett near Teshekpuk Lake on the western side and Oliktok Point on the eastern side. From Oliktok Point, a long chain of barrier islands head east and cross through

Prudhoe Bay Prudhoe Bay is a census-designated place (CDP) located in North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population of the CDP was 2,174 people, up from just five residents in the 2000 census; however, at any give ...

Fauna

The waters of Harrison Bay make an ideal refuge for

long-tailed duck The long-tailed duck (''Clangula hyemalis''), formerly known as oldsquaw, is a medium-sized sea duck that breeds in the tundra and taiga regions of the arctic and winters along the northern coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It is th ...

king eider The king eider (pronounced ) (''Somateria spectabilis'') is a large sea duck that breeds along Northern Hemisphere Arctic coasts of northeast Europe, North America and Asia. The birds spend most of the year in coastal marine ecosystems at high l ...

red-throated loon The red-throated loon (North America) or red-throated diver (Britain and Ireland) (''Gavia stellata'') is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. The most widely distributed member of the loon or diver family, it breeds prim ...

Arctic tern The Arctic tern (''Sterna paradisaea'') is a tern in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe (as far south as Brittany), Asia, and North America (as far south a ...

surf scoter The surf scoter (''Melanitta perspicillata'') is a large sea duck native to North America. Adult males are almost entirely black with characteristic white patches on the forehead and the nape and adult females are slightly smaller and browner. Su ...

s, brant geese, and

glaucous gull The glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus'') is a large gull, the second-largest gull in the world. It breeds in Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and winters south to shores of the Holarctic. The genus name is from Latin ''larus'', which a ...

s. In summer and fall, migrating red-throated and yellow-billed loons and king and spectacled eiders stop in to rest and feed. Nearshore

forage fish Forage fish, also called prey fish or bait fish, are small pelagic fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food. Predators include other larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food ...

are important in Arctic food webs, linking energy from smaller prey items to larger predators like birds and marine mammals. Harrison Bay is important habitat for forage fish, such as Arctic cod and capelin. In addition to the many birds, wintering polar bears hunt and feed on ice seals in the shore-fast ice, along open leads, or at openings in pack ice.Kalxdorff S., Collection of local knowledge regarding polar bear habitat use in Alaska" USFWS Marine Mammal Management, 1997. Retrieved 15-09-2016. Pregnant polar bears frequently build winter dens in and around the area.

Energy

In 2015,

ConocoPhillips ConocoPhillips Company is an American multinational corporation engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and production. It is based in the Energy Corridor district of Houston, Texas. The company has operations in 15 countries and has production in ...

began drilling for oil in the Colville Delta. According to Alaska Dispatch News, residents of the nearby village of

Nuiqsut Nuiqsut ( ik, Nuiqsat, ) is a city in North Slope Borough, Alaska, United States. The population was 433 at the 2000 census and 402 as of the 2010 census. Geography Nuiqsut is located at (70.216338, -151.005725). Nuiqsut is in the North Slop ...

are concerned that the proposed drilling infrastructure will hurt subsistence hunting and fishing in the Colville Delta and thus Harrison BayFalsey, Jeannette Lee
"ConocoPhillips starts drilling in petroleum reserve"
Alaska Dispatch News, 20-08-2015. Retrieved 15-09-2016.

Geography

Fauna

Energy

References

Further reading