Bering Sea

The Bering Sea covers more than two million square kilometres of the northern Pacific. Alaska bounds it on the east and northeast, the Russian Far East and Kamchatka on the west, and the Alaska Peninsula with the Aleutian Islands on the south. The Alaska Peninsula also separates it from the Gulf of Alaska. At the far north, the shallow Bering Strait joins the sea to the Chukchi Sea and the Arctic Ocean, making the region a gateway between two great oceanic systems.

Its underwater form combines a deep basin with a narrow continental slope and extensive shallow shelves. Vitus Bering, a Danish-born navigator in Russian service, made the first systematic European exploration by sailing north from the Pacific in 1728. The name later carried his memory across this maritime space. The sea’s currents, seasonal ice and weather produce a productive ecosystem, but the same mobile conditions have made navigation and use of seasonal supplies demanding and closely tied to the northern seasons.