Point Lay is a delta of the Kokolik River that flows into Kasegaluk Lagoon, a massive embayment separated from the Chukchi Sea by a series of unnamed barrier islands, about 143 miles (231 km) northeast of Point Hope and 96 miles (155 km) southwest of Wainwright, Alaska. Point Lay was named by Captain Frederick W. Beechey in September 1826 for George T. Lay who was the ship’s naturalist. The Iñupiat name for the lagoon was reported in 1923 as ‘Kasegarlik’ meaning ‘spotted seal place’, and the present spelling was published in 1929 by the U.S. Geological Survey. The Kokolik River starts at an elevation of 2,631 ft (802 m) in the De Long Mountains of the western Brooks Range, and flows generally north-northwest for 200 miles (322 km) draining a watershed of 1,470,642 acres (595,148 ha). Kasegaluk Lagoon is connected to the Chukchi Sea by seven passes through the barrier island chain. Barrier islands often develop at the mouths of flooded river valleys as sea level rises. Barriers islands in the Arctic are vulnerable to climate change because sea ice and permafrost buffers the frozen islands from wave erosion during severe storms. Recently measured erosion rates indicate that arctic barrier islands are eroding three to four times faster than islands in more temperate regions.

The barrier island was historically inhabited by Iñupiaq Kuukpaagruk people, and there are still many cabins used seasonally for beluga, walrus, and seal hunting. In the 1970s, most of the residents relocated to the mainland to a site near the Air Force Distance Early Warning station that was less prone to flooding. The deeply-indented shoreline at Point Lay has prevented the village from effectively hunting bowhead whales, since these animals stay farther offshore during the annual migration. However, the village participates in beluga whaling in offshore sea ice leads and within Kasegaluk Lagoon, as well as walrus hunting farther into the Chukchi Sea. During and after breakup of the sea ice between June and mid-August, beluga whales appear along the Chukchi Sea coast between Kotzebue Sound and Wainwright. Belugas are harvested by seven villages including Buckland, Kotzebue, Noatak, Kivalina, Point Hope, Point Lay, and Wainwright. Most villages harvest five or fewer belugas a year. Point Lay typically has a more substantial harvest of 30-40 whales from within the lagoon.

Pacific walruses feed on invertebrates living in and on the benthic sediments of the Bering and Chukchi Seas. Walruses spend most of their lives at sea, but haul out on sea ice and sometimes rest on land between intensive feeding sessions. They can dive hundreds of feet to forage on the seafloor. The extent of summer sea ice in the Chukchi Sea has decreased substantially in recent years, and this change in the distribution of seasonal sea ice affects walrus distribution and behavior. In the last decade, the summer sea ice has receded past the edge of the continental shelf and over water too deep for walruses to feed on the bottom. This has forced walruses to haul out on beaches instead, particularly on the barrier islands of Kasegaluk Lagoon near Point Lay. See a short video about how this is being studied here. Read more here and here. Explore more of Point Lay and Kasegaluk Lagoon here: