Canatec staff have been involved with oilspill tracking, prevention and remediation since the early days of development in the Beaufort Sea. We now focus on issues of remote detection of oil in ice, modelling trajectories of drifting oil under and around sea ice, and pooling and spreading under ice surfaces. These are critical issues for environmentally responsible offshore development in all marine zones as well as in the Arctic.
The following figure illustrates tracks of ice drifting from the Canadian Beaufort Sea lease areas across the northern coast of Alaska and into the Chukchi Sea. Other track analyses and trajectory forecasts show that spills from blowouts in this region could frequently touch shore in various parts of the Alaskan coast.
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