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Bering Sea

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Bering Sea

via Wikipedia: Bering Sea · Public domain

The sea covers over 2000000 km² and is bordered by Alaska, the Russian Far East, the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands.[1] The Northern Pacific Ocean's marginal sea is the Bering Sea.[2] Together with the Bering Strait, this body of water separates Eurasia from the Americas.[3]

Last updated 2026-10-13 from the source article.

Geography and history

The Bering Sea is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born Russian navigator who first systematically explored it in 1728.[4] The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bering Sea.[5] The Bering Sea shelf break, known as the "Greenbelt," is the dominant driver of primary productivity in the sea.[6] A remnant of the ancient Kula plate, which once subducted beneath Alaska, persists in the Bering Sea.[7]

At 25.6 km above the Bering Sea, a large meteor detonated on 18 December 2018, with an energy release of 49 kilotons.[8] The spring phytoplankton bloom is partly initiated by seasonal sea ice, whose melting also causes stratification that affects productivity.[9] Both the United States and Russia have jurisdiction over parts of the Bering Sea ecosystem, while the central "Donut Hole" consists of international waters.[10]

What the cited sources add

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game notes that the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Area includes waters extending to the US–Russia maritime boundary and into the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.[11] This area supports some of the largest commercial fisheries in the United States, including the Bristol Bay red king crab fishery and Bering Sea snow crab fishery.[11] Important fisheries are also conducted for golden king crab, Tanner crab, weathervane scallops, Dungeness crab, Pacific cod, flatfish, sablefish, Pacific salmon, and Pacific herring.[11] The Audubon account reports that in October 2016, the first Tufted Puffin carcasses washed up on St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea.[12]

Hundreds and likely thousands of Tufted Puffins altered their usual behaviors to congregate near a stormy island in the Bering Sea and die.[12] The Red-legged Kittiwake is an uncommon specialty of the Bering Sea, nesting in only four island groups.[13]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Area of Bering sea" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; ; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fasham, M. J. R., "Ocean biogeochemistry: the role of the ocean carbon cycle in global change", Springer, 2003, p. 79; McColl, "Encyclopedia of World Geography", Infobase Publishing, 2005, p. 697 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Vitus Bering" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition", International Hydrographic Organization, 1953 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Springer, "The Bering Sea Green Belt: Shelf-edge processes and ecosystem production", Fisheries Oceanography, 1996, p. 205 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Steinberger, Bernhard, and Carmen Gaina Geology 35 (5) 407–410, 2007 Plate-tectonic reconstructions predict part of the Hawaiian hotspot tract to be preserved i (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Fireballs", cneos.jpl.nasa.gov; Rincon, "US detects huge meteor explosion", BBC News, 18 March 2019 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schumacher, "A Structural Front over the Continental Shelf of the Eastern Bering Sea", Journal of Physical Oceanography, 1979, p. 79; Olsen, "A red tide in the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean", Scientific Reports, 2019-07-02, p. 9536 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Bering Sea" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "North Pacific Overfishing (DONUT)", Trade Environment Database (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. "Bering Sea & Aleutian Islands", Alaska Department of Fish and Game. facts only, no text reused. adfg.alaska.gov
  12. "Hundreds of Tufted Puffin Deaths Suggest Dangers of Warming Seas", Audubon, 23 November 2016. facts only, no text reused. audubon.org
  13. "Red-legged Kittiwake", Audubon, 13 November 2014. facts only, no text reused. audubon.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Bering Sea (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Beaufort Sea

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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