Sea of Okhotsk
Seas of the World 
The O is a semi-enclosed saline sea and an element of the northwestern Pacific Ocean.
This marginal sea of the Pacific basin is bounded on the west by Russia's Sakhalin Island, on the north by the Russian mainland and on the east by Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. At the south the Sea of Okhotsk is bounded by the Japanese island of Hokkaido and Russia's Kuril Islands, two of which are claimed by Japan.
Its average depth is 891 meters (m). Its maximum depth is 3,916 m (see Dubrovolsky and Zalogin, 1982). The sea is shallow in the north and deep in the south.
Contents
Marine biota
See: Sea of Okhotsk large marine ecosystem
Due to the Sea of Okhotsk Sea's position along the Pacific shelf edge and its location at the confluence of Okhotsk Sea gyre and the southward Oyashio Current, the Kuril Islands are enveloped by marine waters that are some of the most biologically productive in the North Pacific, supporting a gamut of abundant marine species.
Expansive kelp beds surround most of the Kurils and offer habitat for sea urchins, numerous mollusca and many other invertebrate species and their predators. Many squid species represent a chief food source for of many of the small marine mammals as well as seabirds along the Kuril chain.
Marine Mammals found in the Sea of Okhotsk include:
- North Pacific right whales
- Bowhead whale
- Baird's beaked whale
- Gray whale
- Arnoux's beaked whale
- Beluga
- Harbour porpoise
- Dall's porpoise
- Pribilof fur seal
- Okhotsk Ringed seal
- Pacific Bearded Seal
- Ribbon seal
- Spotted seal
References
- Dobrovolsky, A.D., and B.S. Zalogin, 1982. Seas of the USSR. Published by MSU. 192 pp. In Russian.
- Kon-Kee Liu and Larry Atkinson. 2009. Carbon and Nutrient Fluxes in Continental Margins: A Global Synthesis. Springer. ISBN 9783540927341.
- International Hydrographic Organization. 1953. Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition.
- John J.Stephan John J. 1971. Sakhalin: a history, Clarendon Press
See also
- Seas of the World on the Encyclopedia of Earth
