Okhotsk, Sea of

Arm of the North Pacific Ocean between the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin, and bordered to the south by the Kuril Islands, and the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido; area 937,000 sq km/361,700 sq mi, average depth 777 m/2,550 ft, maximum depth 3,372 m/11,062 ft. It is free of ice only in summer, and is often fog-bound. Magadan is the chief port, and the River Amur flows into it.

The sea contains an abundance of fish, including salmon, herring, cod, and flounder, as well as shrimp and crab. Fishing rights in the Sea of Okhotsk have been the subject of dispute between Russia and Japan, though since 1977 the USSR, and now Russia, have had effective control of virtually the whole sea and have incrased commercial exploitation. Deposits of oil and natural gas, also under Russian control, have been located in the northern shallower areas of the sea.