Arctic Ocean relate to the radioactive contamination of the Arctic Ocean from, for example, Russian radioactive waste dump sites in the Kara Sea and Cold War nuclear test sites such as Novaya Zemlya. In addition, Shell planned to drill exploratory wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas during the summer of 2012, which environmental groups filed a lawsuit about in an attempt to protect native communities, endangered wildlife, and the Arctic Ocean in the event of a major oil spill. On 16 July 2015, five nations (United States of America, Russia, Canada, Norway, Denmark/Greenland) signed a declaration committing to keep their fishing
Beaufort West Local Municipality the south and the Laingsburg Municipality to the southwest. According to the 2011 census the municipality has a population of 49,586 people in 13,089 households. Of this population, 73.5% describe themselves as "Coloured", 16.3% as "Black African", and 9.2% as "White". The first language of 84.3% of the population is Afrikaans, while 10.7% speak Xhosa and 2.5% speak English. The main town in the municipality is Beaufort West, which as of 2011 has a population of 34,085. Murraysburg (pop. 5,069) is situated in the far east of the municipality. Nelspoort (pop. 1,699) is situated northeast of Beaufort West, while Merweville