Tuk Eroding
Canadian Geographic March/April 2005

Residents of Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T. are fortifying their shoreline to prevent the Beaufort Sea from submerging their little hamlet. Over the past several decades, the community has lost its curling rink and been forced to move its RCMP station away from the waters.

Built on a mixture of sand, gravel and ice, Tuktoyaktuk (pop. 930) is sinking relative to the sea level, which has been rising by three to four millimetres each year.

When storms cut through the area, they erode low bluffs on the water's edge. As a result, geologists predict that Tuktoyaktuk Island, at the mouth of the harbour, will disappear in 30 to 50 years, leaving the hamlet increasingly vulnerable to severe wave action.

In 1994 the government recommended the most cost-effective way of dealing with the problem was to leave the peninsula. Instead, residents built rock and concrete barriers along the shore to save it.

"The rock seems to be holding up so far, but in the long term, I don't know what will happen," says Mayor Jackie Jacobson. "But I was born in Tuktoyaktuk and as long as I'm mayor, I'm going to do my best to stay in the community."