What is the name of the sea to the north of Alaska?

The sea immediately north of Alaska is the Beaufort Sea. It is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, bordered by Alaska to the south and Canada’s Yukon and Northwest Territories to the east. Its waters are largely covered by sea ice for much of the year.

The Beaufort Sea is named after Sir Francis Beaufort, the British hydrographer who created the Beaufort wind-force scale. The sea contains the Mackenzie River delta, one of the largest Arctic river deltas, and its shallow continental shelf supports important ecosystems for polar bears, seals, whales, and seabirds.

The main geographical confusion is with the Chukchi Sea. The Chukchi Sea lies west of Point Barrow, Alaska, and connects southward through the Bering Strait. The Beaufort Sea begins east of Point Barrow and stretches along Alaska’s northern coast toward Canada. The Bering Sea, meanwhile, is south of Alaska, while the Labrador Sea is far away in the North Atlantic.