Norton Sound

Norton Sound, or Imaqpak in Inupiaq, is a broad inlet of the Bering Sea on western Alaska’s coast south of the Seward Peninsula. About 240 kilometers long and 200 kilometers wide, it is shaped in part by the Yukon River delta along its southern shore and is ice-free mainly from June to October. The sound has long been part of the homeland of Indigenous peoples of western Alaska and marks a cultural boundary between the Iñupiat to the north and the Yup'ik to the south. Entering British charts in 1778 during Captain James Cook’s exploration, it remains an important geographic and cultural corridor linking communities along its shores.