The Sea of Okhotsk: the inland sea of Russia or ...

When you look at the geographical map, everything seems to be clear. The Okhotsk Sea is surrounded on all sides by Russian territory: either by islands or by the line of the Asian coast. And only in the 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 for international law, according to which the Sea of Okhotsk does not have the legal status of the inland sea of Russia. Its water area due to the geographic features of the region in full compliance with international law is the high seas, and any state can fish here if it does not contradict the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

But, leaving legal nuances to lawyers, we will consider what the Sea of Okhotsk is in geographical and natural terms. Its area is a little more than one million six hundred thousand square kilometers, the greatest depth is almost four kilometers (3,916 meters), the average depth is 1,700 meters. The length of the coastline is almost ten and a half thousand kilometers, and the volume of water in the sea is about one million three hundred and sixty-five thousand cubic kilometers. The largest bays are the Shelikhov Bay, the Uda Bay, the Tauisk Bay, the Gulf of the Academy and the Sakhalin Bay. From October to June the northern part of the sea is not navigable, since it is covered with a continuous layer of ice.

Although the Sea of Okhotsk is located mostly in temperate latitudes, its climate is of a northern character. Average January air temperatures in the southern regions of the sea - from minus five to minus seven degrees, and in the north - to minus twenty-four. Southern temperatures are more monotonous 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 many fish (especially salmonids) are replenished, so the laws of many countries explicitly prohibit their citizens from fishing there, despite the fact that they are entitled under international maritime legislation. In addition to fish, in the waters of the Sea of Okhotsk there are many marine arthropods (the famous Kamchatka crab), sea urchins, mussels and other mollusks.

On the very north-east of the sea is the bay of Shelikhov. 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 with the sea is one hundred and thirty kilometers, and the maximum width is three hundred kilometers. The depth of the bay is not large - not more than three hundred and fifty meters. The bay is especially noteworthy in that here the highest tides (up to fourteen meters) are observed in the Pacific Ocean. The height of the tide in the Shelikhov Bay is quite inferior to the height of the tide in the Bay of Fundy (up to fifteen to eighteen meters) on the Atlantic coast of Canada.

This bay of the Sea of Okhotsk is named after the merchant G. Shelikhov. A native of Kursk province, he moved from Central Russia to the Far East, he organized not only fishing in the bay, which later was named after him, but also an expedition to Alaska. He stands at the origins of the creation of the Russian-American company, with it were built Russian settlements on the island of Kodiak and the development of the American continent was started.