Sea of Okhotsk: Russian inland sea or

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

When looking at a geographical map, everything seems to be clear. The Sea of Okhotsk is surrounded on all sides by Russian territory: either by islands or by the line of the Asian coast. And only in the very southwest we will see the northern end of the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

But what is obvious to a person is far from always obvious to international law, according to which the Sea of Okhotsk does not have the legal status of an inland sea of Russia. Due to the geographical features of the region, its water area is the open sea in full accordance with international law, and any state can fish here, if this does not contradict the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

But, leaving the legal nuances to lawyers, let's consider what the Sea of Okhotsk is in geographical and natural terms. Its area is a little over one million six hundred thousand square kilometers, the greatest depth is almost four kilometers (3916 meters), the average depth is one thousand seven hundred and eighty meters. The length of the coastline is almost ten and a half thousand kilometers, and the volume of water contained in the sea is approximately one million three hundred and sixtyfive thousand cubic kilometers.

The largest bays are Shelikhov Bay, Udskaya Bay, Tauiskaya Bay, Academy Bay and Sakhalin Bay. From October to June, the northern part of the sea is not navigable, as it is covered with a continuous layer of ice.

Although the Sea of Okhotsk is located mostly in temperate latitudes, its climate is northern. Average January air temperatures in the southern regions of the sea are from minus five to minus seven degrees, and in the north - up to minus twenty-four. Southern temperatures are more uniform throughout the water area and range from plus twelve in the north to plus eighteen in the south.

The Sea of Okhotsk is the most valuable region where the population of many fish (especially salmon) is replenished, therefore the laws of many countries directly prohibit their citizens from fishing there, despite the fact that they have the right to do so under international maritime law. In addition to fish, there are many marine arthropods (the famous king crab), sea urchins, mussels and other mollusks in the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk.

Shelikhov Bay is located in the very north-east of the sea. This is the largest bay in the Sea of Okhotsk. Its length is six hundred and fifty kilometers, the width of the passage connecting it to the sea is one hundred and thirty kilometers, and the maximum width is three hundred kilometers.

The depth of the bay is small - no more than three hundred and fifty meters. The bay is notable primarily for the fact that the highest tides are observed here (up to fourteen meters) inPacific Ocean. The height of the tide in Shelikhov Bay is quite a bit inferior to the height of the tide in the Bay of Fundy (up to fifteen or eighteen meters) on the Atlantic coast of Canada.

This bay of the Sea of Okhotsk is named after the merchant G. I. Shelikhov. A native of the Kursk province, having moved from Central Russia to the Far East, he organized not only fishing in the bay, which was later named after him, but also expeditions to Alaska. He stands at the origins of the creation of the Russian-American Company, under him Russian settlements were built on Kodiak Island and the development of the American continent began.