Sea of ​​Okhotsk on the map. Sea of ​​Okhotsk: resources, description, features and interesting facts

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is often called harsh. And for good reason. However, the flora and fauna of this huge reservoir turns out to be very rich and diverse.

Before we begin to describe life in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, its characteristic complexes of organisms - communities, or biocenoses, we should briefly characterize the main systematic groups of plants and animals found in the Far Eastern seas.

The marine flora differs very significantly from terrestrial vegetation. If on land in most habitats higher or seed plants rarely predominate, other leafy or higher spore plants (mosses, horsetails, mosses and ferns) are also very common, then in the seas the picture is completely different. The seabed in the coastal zone of the sea is most often inhabited by algae - lower spore plants, the body of which is not divided into stems, leaves and roots. Such a body, or thallus, often has branched formations - rhizoids, with which the algae is attached to the substrate; but, unlike roots, they are not used to absorb mineral salts and water.

Algae can be unicellular, colonial, multicellular, or have a noncellular structure. Some algae reach a length of several tens of meters, while others can only be seen through a microscope. The thalli of multicellular algae have the form of simple or branched threads, plates, tubes, cords, rods, balls and hemispheres, crusts, bubbles, clubs or mushrooms. Sometimes the algae thallus is dissected even more complexly and looks like a higher plant. In a number of algae, the thallus is impregnated with lime, and they form massive crusts or segmented bushes.

One more important difference between marine vegetation and terrestrial vegetation can be noted. If on land all plants, with the exception of special dispersal stages, are closely associated with the soil, and less often with other substrates, then in the sea, on the contrary, the bulk of plants are suspended in the water column. This is explained mainly by the much higher density of water (775 times) compared to air, as well as the presence in water of salts, gases and microelements necessary for plant life.

Existence in a suspended state determined the characteristics of the evolution of algae. Since the specific gravity of the cellular contents, although not much, still exceeds the specific gravity of salty sea water, only very small organisms can cook in the water column.

Having a relatively large specific surface area, they sink more slowly than larger forms. Therefore, plants living in the water column (pelagial) are very small - their sizes range from a few thousandths of a millimeter to 1-2 mm.

Most algae are autotrophs, containing, like sushi plants, the green pigment chlorophyll and, thanks to photosynthesis, capable of independently constructing the organic substances of their body from inorganic ones. However, the color of algae is very diverse, since the green color of chlorophyll is often masked by additional pigments of yellow, brown, red or blue.

Systematically, algae do not represent a single group. Thus, for a long time, blue-green algae, which have an extremely primitive organization, lack a formed cell nucleus, flagellar motile stages and for which the sexual process is not characteristic, united with other algae. although they, together with bacteria, deserve to be separated into a special kingdom of prenuclear organisms. We will not touch upon this group of organisms, as well as fungi, many of whose lower representatives live in our seas. The remaining groups of algae have a formed nucleus and, as a rule, reproduce sexually.

Diatoms. Despite their microscopic size, these solitary or colonial algae are considered the main creators of organic matter in our seas. They live both in the water column and at the bottom of reservoirs. Diatoms have an olive or yellowish-brown color, since in addition to chlorophyll they contain yellow and brown pigments. A shell impregnated with silica, consisting of two valves, is a characteristic feature of these plants.

Brown algae. This includes multicellular seaweeds of various shapes and structures. Some of them are real giants among marine plants and reach more than 40 m in length. Different quantitative ratios of green, yellow, orange and brown pigments give brown algae an olive-green, yellowish-brown, brown or dark brown (almost black in cortical forms) color. Various carbohydrates, including sugars, are stored as reserve nutrients, but starch is not formed. In the area (action of ebbs and flows (i.e. in the littoral zone) in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, almost everywhere on rocky and rocky soils, fucus (Fucus evanescens) grows luxuriantly - a fairly large brown algae, reaching a meter in length. This algae has a ribbon-like, multiple a forked branching thallus, which is attached to the substrate with the help of a rounded sole. The branches are flat, with a longitudinal vein in the middle. At the ends of the branches there are swollen oval formations, dotted with small tubercles with holes in the center. Inside these tubercles, sexual reproductive organs develop. In the southern part of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk above the fucus grows pelvetia (Pelvetia wrightii).It differs from the fucus in its smaller size, not so wide, but thicker branches, lacking a midrib, as well as lighter color.

In addition to the Fucus order, although to a different family, belongs the most complex externally sargassum algae, which grows below the Fucus, usually below the low tide zone. The thallus of these algae consists of branched thin cylindrical branches, reminiscent of the stem of higher plants. The similarity is further aggravated by the presence on the branches of leaf-shaped plates with a midrib and short branches on which reproductive organs or berry-like swim bladders are located. Sargassum algae Cystoseira is often found off the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk; the main species of Sargassum live only in the southern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

The largest sizes not only among brown algae, but also among algae in general, are kelp algae, which form real underwater forests off the coast of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, including in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, at depths of up to 20 m. The kelp thallus usually consists of a whole or dissected plate, a simple or branched stem and a sole or rhizoids with which the algae is attached to the substrate. Many kelp algae serve as valuable commercial products, are used in cooking, as well as fertilizers in fields, and are used to feed livestock. Chemists obtain from them such valuable substances as mannitol and alginic acid. Even in ancient times, all kinds of preparations from seaweed in the form of powder or tincture were widely used in medicine. Their therapeutic effect is determined by the presence of iodine, bromine, vitamins A, B, C and various mineral salts in algae. On the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, different types of kelp, or seaweed, and alaria, or beaver cabbage, grow. These genera, belonging to different families, differ in that in kelp the reproductive organs are located on the plate itself, while in alaria they are on special lamellar appendages surrounding the stem at the base of the main plate. In the northern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the kelp-like Lessonia grows, and in the south there are several more genera of kelp.

Green algae. This group includes many both freshwater and marine forms of unicellular and multicellular organisms and a number of plants with a noncellular structure. Among marine green algae, multicellular ones predominate; noncellular ones are less common. Their color is usually green, since chlorophyll significantly predominates over yellow and orange pigments. The main reserve nutrient is starch. Many forms of green algae are known, but in terms of their diversity and size, these algae are noticeably inferior to brown algae. In our seas, forms with thread-like, simple or branched, tubular, sac-like or lamellar thallus predominate. Ulva sea lettuce with a delicate lamellar thallus of light green color, which reaches a diameter of several tens of centimeters, can be eaten.

Red algae, or purple algae. These, undoubtedly the most beautiful marine plants, are sharply separated from real algae, for example, green and brown, in a number of significant characteristics. Purples are completely devoid of motile flagellated stages. Therefore, even their male reproductive cells are not capable of active movement. In addition, in addition to chlorophyll, scarlet mushrooms have additional pigments - blue fncocyan and red phycoerythrin. Interestingly, both of these features bring red algae closer to blue-green algae, from which, however, they differ in the presence of a nucleus and the ability to reproduce sexually.

Among the red algae there are thread-like, cord-like, crust-like, lamellar, bag-like, bushy forms, in the form of a leaf with veins, etc. In some red algae, the body is so saturated with lime that it becomes hard as stone. They form crusts or branching bushes somewhat reminiscent of corals. Calcareous scarlet fish are also widespread in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

The mucus of some red algae, after appropriate heat and other processing, turns into a dense jelly called agar-agar. This substance is widely used in the food, paper and medical industries. A valuable raw material for the production of agar-agar in the USSR is Ahnfeltia crimson. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, it was mined for many years in the south - in Busse Lagoon on Sakhalin Island and in Izmena Bay on Kunashir Island (Kuril Islands).

Other groups of microscopic algae are also known, for example, peridiniums equipped with flagella. Most of them have a body covered with a cellulose shell, consisting of individual tablets, less often it is naked. Some peridineas (like blue-green algae) are poisonous and, in case of excessive accumulation, cause mass deaths of fish and other marine animals, and sometimes even people who have tasted poisoned food. But such a peridinea as the well-known night light - Noctiluca, whose spherical body reaches 2 mm in diameter, is devoid of a cellulose shell, is incapable of photosynthesis due to the lack of chlorophyll and feeds by ingesting and digesting microscopic plants and protozoa. It causes a beautiful greenish-bluish glow of the sea. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk there are up to 45 thousand nocturnal lights per liter of water.

sea ​​grass. Higher plants in the seas are not as common as on land. The Far Eastern seas are characterized by only three species of zostera and one species of phyllospadix, known as sea flax because of its durable leaves. All these species also grow in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Seagrasses, although they live in aquatic environments, are true flowering plants that reproduce by seeds. They belong to the pondweed family, which inhabit freshwater basins. Sea grasses have long rhizomes and long narrow braid-like green leaves, the lateral edges of which are smooth in Zostera and jagged in Phyllospadix. Another characteristic feature is the presence of air-carrying cavities inside the leaves, thanks to which sea grasses stay afloat. Their seeds develop in inflorescences, which in Zostera are attached to a long flowering stem, and in Phyllospadix - near the rhizome. These two genera also differ in biology. Species of the genus Zostera grow on sandy, silty-sandy and silty soils in non-surf or weak surf areas, and Phyllospadix takes root in rock crevices and between stones, often in the zone of strong surf. Therefore, the powerful, intertwined rhizomes of Phyllospadix serve as a refuge for many inhabitants of the littoral, or dry zone.

Sea grasses have been used by humans for a long time. Lye and soda were obtained from their ashes, and the ashes were used both as fertilizer and in the manufacture of glass. Dry sea grass was used for stuffing beds and furniture, and was used as a thermal insulation material by builders, as well as in the manufacture of paper and in a number of other industries.

Unlike plants, the fauna of the seas and oceans is extremely rich. All types and most classes of animals originated in the oceans, and only a few classes of vertebrates and arthropods originated on land. Some of them, for example, radiolarians, scyphojellyfish, coral polyps, ctenophores, brachiopods, armored and cephalopods, horseshoe crabs, sea spiders, all echinoderms, bristlejaws, pogonophora, ascidians and a number of others, i.e., 31 classes out of 72 known to date time they live only in the marine environment. Others - sponges, hydroids, nemerteans, bryozoans, polychaetes - live mainly in the seas and are few in fresh waters. However, in terms of the number of animal species, the marine environment is significantly inferior to the air environment, which is inhabited by an incredible variety of insect species, the number of which is approaching a million. In total, more than 150 thousand species of various animals live in the seas. Most of them are inhabitants of the tropics; in the Far Eastern seas there are much fewer of them - several thousand species each. Let's look at the main groups of marine animals inhabiting the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Protozoa. Zoologists still classify as the type of simplest animals not only all single-celled animals, but also a large number of single-celled plants - algae, which botanists have long and quite rightly classified among various divisions (the same - types in zoology) of plants, for example, the entire type of peridinea , which were mentioned above. Naturally, we will not touch on these groups.

To the class sarcode Along with the well-known freshwater amoeba, there is a large group of sea inhabitants - foraminifera (translated from Latin as “bearing holes”). The fact is that in many foraminifera the walls of calcareous shells, characteristic of most species of the group, are penetrated by tiny pores through which numerous pseudopodia emerge. But in some of them the skeleton is formed by grains of sand glued to the outer layer of the body. Most foraminifera lead a bottom-dwelling lifestyle. Although they are single-celled animals, some of them reach 3 cm across the shell. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to over 100 species of foraminifera.

Another group of protozoa - radiolarians, or rays, exists only in the water column. The sizes of radiolarians range from fractions of a millimeter to several centimeters in diameter, but such large forms are rare. Most of these beautiful organisms with delicate, often lacy skeletons made of silica or strontium sulfate live in warm seas. There are relatively fewer of them in the Far Eastern waters, but still over 80 species have been recorded in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Also, only in the water column live marine representatives of the most complex protozoa - ciliates, whose body is enclosed in a transparent thin house of organic matter. Due to some external resemblance of the house to a bell, they got their name (in Latin, bell - tintinnabulum). At least 30 species of these protozoa have been identified in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

A unique group of multicellular organisms, similar in many respects to true multicellular animals, are sponges. For many, the name “sponges” is associated with a bath sponge, although the “Greek sponge,” which actually belongs to the group of organisms in question, has already become a thing of legend. In cosmetics, another sponge is used - freshwater sponge. Alas, sponges living in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk cannot be used in either respect. The fact is that most of our shallow-water sponges, although they seem soft to the touch, have an internal skeleton containing microscopic spines made of silica.

We have significantly fewer sponges with a calcareous skeleton. Glass sponges are amazingly beautiful with their delicate skeleton consisting of six-rayed silica needles, but they are found at great depths. In total, over 100 species of sponges have been identified in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Their forms are very diverse. Sometimes these are crusts or pillows with which rocks, stones and the bases of large algae grow, or lumps, lobed, branched, bushy, funnel-shaped or other formations. Glass sponges often have a cylindrical, tubular or goblet-shaped body. Sponges are typical filter feeders, that is, they feed by filtering water through their body and retaining small organic particles suspended in it. Most of them have an unpleasant odor that scares away enemies. In our everyday life, we use toilet sponges, the skeleton of which consists only of horny fibers, and freshwater bodysponges, and for decorations - some glass sponges.

Coelenterates- the most primitive type among true multicellular animals, from which more complex organisms probably evolved. These animals got their name due to the fact that in their body, consisting of only two layers of cells, there is only one cavity, called the intestinal cavity. Nevertheless, among the coelenterates there is an enormous diversity of forms. Most of these are colonial animals, forming settlements in the form of bushes, twigs, pipe cleaners, feathers, balls, cups, etc., soft or hard, soaked in lime. Solitary coelenterates include the well-known jellyfish and sea anemones. The life cycle of many coelenterates is characterized by two alternating forms - asexual in the form of a single or colonial polyp living on the bottom, and sexual - in the form of a jellyfish floating in the water. In tropical seas, colonial coral polyps with lime-soaked skeletons are the main builders of coral reefs. There are no such reef-forming corals in the seas of the USSR. Despite their often sedentary lifestyle, all coelenterates are predators. The tentacles surrounding their mouth are equipped with stinging cells and serve for both attack and defense.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to at least 200 species of polyps and jellyfish, not counting sea anemones, which have hardly been systematically studied. The largest size, up to 2 m in diameter, reaches the red color of the cyanide jellyfish. Fortunately, her burns, like those of almost all coelenterates - inhabitants of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, are harmless to humans. Severe and sometimes life-threatening burns are caused by the cross jellyfish, which is widespread in the Sea of ​​Japan. True, in the extreme south of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, we met isolated individuals of the godson, but they do not pose a real danger.

A small type close to coelenterates ctenophores. If coelenterates live both at the bottom and in the water column of reservoirs, then almost all ctenophores lead a free-swimming lifestyle, never touching the bottom, with the exception of a few crawling species. The body of ctenophores, like jellyfish, is gelatinous. The water content in their body is 99%, which, apparently, is a kind of record in the animal world. Their body is round or bag-shaped, their mouth is located in front. These animals got their name because of the 8 rows of plates, each of which is split and resembles a comb. The sea cucumber lives in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

The most primitive of all worms are ciliated worms, which retain many similarities with ctenophores. Their body is covered with cilia, with the help of which they move. The sense organs - the organs of balance, smell and perception of light, as well as the central nervous system in the form of longitudinal nerve trunks - are primitive. There is a mouth opening, but the intestines are not always developed. Typically, ciliated worms are small, delicate, with a very flattened body, but some species reach a length of 16 cm. The species composition of worms in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is still very poorly studied.

Nemerteans, classified as an independent type of animal, are distinguished by their worm-like, often very long bodies. Their organization is much more complex than that of ciliated worms. Unlike the latter, they are endowed with an anus and a circulatory system. Like ciliated worms, their body is covered with ciliated tissue. These are predatory animals, and their weapon of murder is their trunk, which is normally screwed inside the body. Some nemerteans have a trunk equipped with a sharp stylet and a poisonous gland. The body length is usually several centimeters, although there are also forms that can stretch to almost 30 m in length. The coloring is extremely varied. Golden yellow, brown, white, scarlet and green animals, often decorated with spots or specks of other colors, look especially colorful. Most nemerteans live at the bottom, but some species live only in the water column. Nemerteans of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk are still poorly studied; Over 25 species have been described off the coast of the Kuril Islands.

Scientists associate a small group of very peculiar animals, represented by only a few species, with roundworms. These are prnapulids, thick and lopsided. Their mouth opening and pharynx are located in the front, and the pharynx is surrounded by a trunk armed with hooks and spikes, which is screwed inward in a calm state. With the help of this trunk the animal buries itself in the sand. Most priapulids have a grape-shaped appendage at the posterior end of the body - a respiratory organ, or gills. There are no circulatory organs. The nervous system is very primitive; there are no sense organs. Prnapulids lead a burrowing lifestyle. These animals reach 10-15 cm in length. We found one of the species of priapulids in large numbers in the dry zone of the Gizhiga Bay and the southern part of the Kuril Islands.

Annelids, in contrast to the lower ones - flat and round, are considered by scientists to be higher worms, taking into account a number of features of their organization. Earthworms and leeches, well known to the reader, also belong to this group, but these are terrestrial or freshwater representatives of annelids. Marine species are more diverse, and many of them are distinguished by the perfection of their forms. Their body consists of a head, a ringed body and a tail blade. On the sides of the body segments there are usually organs of movement - parapodia in the form of blades, from which bristles protrude. The nervous system of annelids is quite developed and consists, in addition to cords, of nerve ganglia. The sense organs - vision and smell - are also well developed. There are circulatory and excretory systems, but respiratory organs are not always present. Polychaete ringlets, or polychaetes, are widespread in the seas. They got their name because their parapodia are lined with tufts of numerous bristles. Among them, both mobile, crawling and burrowing forms were identified, as well as immobile ones, burrowing or located in rocky or calcareous valleys, on rocks, stones and algae thalli. Most annelids lead a bottom-dwelling lifestyle, and only a few species are free-swimming. In total, about 300 species of annelids have been recorded in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Kuril Islands.

The latter now also includes a small group of echiurids, although their body has not been dismembered. These animals, burrowing in loose soil, with a rounded, hairy body, at the front end of which there is usually a trunk that can be extended or compressed, reach 20-30 cm in length. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Echiurus and Urechis, which belong to the largest e., are often found. Khiuridam.

Close to annelids and class sipunculid- a small group of typically marine animals. Their body, round in cross section, is devoid of any appendages except the trunk. The mouth opening, which ends the trunk, is surrounded by a corolla of tentacles. Sipunculids either burrow into the ground or hide between the rhizomes of sea grasses, calcareous algae and corals, sticking their trunk out. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, especially in its southern part, the sipunculid Physcosoma japonica is common. It is easiest to find between the rhizomes of sea flax - phyllospadix, which grows in abundance in the south of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk.

Undoubtedly, they originated from annelids arthropods- this is the richest type of organic world in species. Although at least 90% of the total number of arthropod species, which far exceeds a million, are insects, i.e., inhabitants of the air, several tens of thousands of species of this type still live in the sea. Most of them belong to the gill-breathing subtype, including crustaceans that have two pairs of antennae or antennae. Crustaceans breathe either with gills, or the surface of some legs, or (especially small forms) with the entire surface of the body. The chitinous shell of crustaceans is usually impregnated with lime, and their body consists of a head, chest and abdomen with a tail plate. In many crustaceans, the posterior edge of the dorsal covering of the head grows greatly and covers the entire chest or only its anterior part from above and from the sides, forming a cephalothoracic shield, or carapace. The thoracic legs, bibranched in the most primitive forms, lose one of the branches in many crustaceans. They usually serve for locomotion and often have gills; in many forms the front legs are modified into claws, which facilitates food capture and defense. Abdominal legs are present only in representatives of the subclass of higher crustaceans. Of the five known subclasses of crustaceans, representatives of three subclasses live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Not at all like them, and indeed like crayfish in general, are barnacles, whose body shape is greatly modified due to a sedentary lifestyle. However, the free-swimming larva has the appearance of a typical crustacean. In adult crustaceans, the body is enclosed in an outer skin - a mantle, which is protected from the outside by a limestone house made up of individual tablets. By rhythmically moving their antenna-shaped chest legs, filtering and aerating the water, the crustaceans provide themselves with food and oxygen for breathing. Typically, barnacles are one of the main components of fouling of ships and hydraulic structures. At least 15 species of these jawed animals live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Sea ducks, whose body sits on a flexible stalk, settle on algae, logs and other floating objects. Coastal rocks and the bottoms of ships are overgrown with sea acorns devoid of stems. A special sea acorn, the coronula, has taken root on the skin of whales, especially baleen whales. Representatives of true sea acorns - balanuses - are widespread throughout the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the largest of which reaches a height of 20 cm. Unfortunately, the latter species lives in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk only at depths of 100 m or more. In the southern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, in the upper part of the tidal strip, settlements of small acorns, Chtamalus, belonging to a different family, are common on rocks.

Higher crustaceans. Crustaceans of this subclass are characterized by a constant composition of thoracic (8) and abdominal (6, rarely 7) segments and the presence of abdominal legs. Often one or more of the anterior thoracic segments are fused with the head, and their limbs are usually modified and turned into jaws. Higher crustaceans are distributed very widely, not only in the seas, but also in fresh waters and on land. This subclass includes the majority of large crustaceans, including all commercial forms.

In a group of orders, development occurs without a true larva, and fertilized eggs are gestated in special brood pouches located on the underside of the chest. Crustaceans from the order Mxidae have a cephalothoracic shield, eyes sit on stalks, and a thin abdomen; each thoracic leg consists of two branches, which is more primitive than a single-branched limb. These tiny crustaceans, rarely exceeding 2 cm in length, live both at the bottom and in the water column. In the summer, somewhere on a surf sandy beach, as soon as you stamp your foot in the splash zone, some kind of rapid swarming immediately begins in the sand. It was we who disturbed Grebnitsky’s mysid females, who swam here and buried themselves in the top layer of sand for the period of gestation. It’s restless, but there’s plenty of oxygen for the developing eggs to breathe. As the sea level decreases or rises due to tides, the females migrate up and down along the shore, always remaining in the splash zone. The orders of amphipods and isopods are close to mysids in their method of bearing young and some features, although they differ from them in having single-branched thoracic legs and other signs of a higher organization. They do not have a cephalothoracic shield, so they do not look like mysids. Eyes sessile, without stalks.

Another group of orders of higher crustaceans is characterized by development with the succession of several larval forms. If fertilized eggs are gestated, they are not in a pouch on the chest, but between the abdominal legs; the eyes always sit on stalks. The cephalothoracic shield is fused with all thoracic segments. This group includes two orders - euphausian crustaceans and decapod crustaceans.

The order Euphausiaceae includes a relatively small number (less than 100 species) of tiny, up to 8 cm in length, crustaceans, with their elongated bodies somewhat reminiscent of mysids and shrimp. Their cephalothoracic shield is shortened, so that the gills on the sides of the chest are not covered. All eight pairs of thoracic legs are of the same structure, bibranched. Euphausnids are typical inhabitants of the water column, and some of them, especially Antarctic krill, from which they have now learned to prepare a variety of food products, form huge aggregations. Euphausiids are the main food of many baleen whales, fish and some marine mammals.

The order of decapod crustaceans, which includes almost all commercial crustaceans, is much richer in species (over 8 thousand). Their gills are completely covered by the cephalothorax shield. Body shapes vary, with the most typical being shrimp-like, crustacean-like and crab-like. Decapods got their name because of the eight pairs of thoracic limbs, the three front ones turned into jaws, so that only five pairs, usually single-branched, are used for movement. The floating forms of decapods have an elongated, more or less laterally compressed body, a long abdomen, and highly developed abdominal legs. Such crustaceans are called shrimps, shrimps, or chilims. The first of these names is of French origin, the second is of English origin, and the third, apparently, is the word “shrims” distorted in the East. Shrimp meat, mainly the abdominal muscles, has a wonderful taste and is considered a most valuable delicacy.

Off the coast of southern Sakhalin and in the southern Kuril Islands, a green or brownish grass shrimp, most often called chilim, is common. It lives at shallow depths in thickets of sea grass, reaching a length of 15, rarely 18 cm. The shrimp bear cub is the same size, but it is distinguished by a more massive body and a strong, prickly shell. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, several species of this genus have been identified, living at greater depths than the grass shrimp. Many crawling and burrowing decapods have an elongated cylindrical body or slightly flattened in the dorsoventral direction, somewhat resembling crayfish in appearance. Only in the south of the Kuril Islands was a mole crab with a soft light gray shell, reaching a length of 9 cm, found. It lives in burrows dug with claws in the muddy sand.

The body shape of hermit crabs is very peculiar. The front part of their body is covered with a shell, while their rather massive long abdomen is bare and soft. Its cancer hides in the empty shells of gastropods. Due to this way of life, the abdomen of the hermit crab is asymmetrical and convoluted, since the cavity in the shell of the mollusk is also convoluted in the shape of a spiral, and it is held in it with the help of steering legs and shortened posterior thoracic legs. As the animal grows, it must change its “home”. With its right claw, which is much larger than the left, the hermit crab covers the mouth of the shell in case of danger.

The most valuable invertebrate animal of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk - the Kamchatka crab, from the point of view of scientists, is not a crab at all. The only thing that brings it closer to real crabs is the crab-shaped body shape, which is characterized by weak development of the abdomen. Bend under the powerful cephalothorax, which makes up the entire body of the animal visible from above, it is completely invisible. In fact, the king crab is more closely related to hermit crabs than to true crabs, and belongs to the craboid family. In the more primitive representatives of this family - small sculpin craboids and stone craboids - the abdomen is quite large, looks like a soft air sac and is only partially tucked under the cephalothorax. In real craboids, including commercial ones, the abdomen is small, flattened, calcified and completely folded under the cephalothorax. Externally, craboids are easy to distinguish from crabs: in addition to a pair of claws, they have not four, but three pairs of walking legs, since the rear pair of thoracic legs is greatly reduced and bent down.

The Kamchatka crab is one of the largest representatives of the arthropod phylum. The width of its cephalothorax shield can reach 25 cm, its leg span can be one and a half meters, and its weight can be 7 kg. True, the average weight of a male caught in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is much less - only 1800. The Kamchatka crab makes long migrations, so its thoracic legs are especially strongly developed. Delicacy products are made from the muscles of the legs, while the internal organs located under the cephalothorax shield are unsuitable for consumption. The bluish blood of crabs contains a respiratory pigment that contains copper, not iron, as in the hemoglobin of vertebrates.

The Kamchatka crab is widespread in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, but forms the largest concentrations off the western coast of Kamchatka. Its schools move here annually over distances of 70 to 180 km. The Kamchatka crab winters in this area at a considerable depth, exceeding 200 m. The water temperature here is noticeably higher than at shallower depths, and is +1.5 ° C. In the spring, when the coastal waters begin to warm up, the Kamchatka crab approaches the shore. At this time, females molt and after molting they mate with males. The fertilized eggs are glued to the female's abdominal legs, where they are hatched. Later, molting occurs in males. Having completed the mating season, the crabs migrate to food fields, crawling from one field to another as they become scarce and eating small mollusks, crustaceans and polychaete worms. In the same genus as the Kamchatka crab, there are two more species that are somewhat smaller in size, but just as tasty - spiny and blue crabs.

True crabs are the largest group of decapod crustaceans, numbering about 4.5 thousand species, but they are distributed mainly in the tropics and subtropics. In the seas of the USSR, their fauna is very poor. In the coastal waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, medium-sized quadrangular and pentagonal hairy crabs are often found; to the south, off the coast of southern Sakhalin and the southern part of the Kuril Islands, fast running coastal crabs attract attention. All crabs are, in principle, edible, but only the snow crab, the diameter of the cephalothoraxal shell of which reaches 16 cm, can be of commercial importance. The legs of the snow crab are long, but thin, the claws on the front legs are the same size - unlike the Kamchatka crab and its relatives in whom the right claw is always much larger than the left. It got its name because, having sharp claws, it easily cuts nets if it gets caught in them. In total, at least 100 species of decapod crayfish live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Class sea spiders. This class is usually classified, along with horseshoe crabs, as a subphylum of chelicerate arthropods, which includes a large group of predominantly terrestrial arachnids. However, their combination is largely arbitrary, since sea spiders are very different from real arachnids. They are usually small animals with a narrow body, disproportionately small compared to their very long legs. The head section bears a trunk and a pair of clawed limbs, palps, egg-bearing legs and walking legs. The three subsequent segments each have a pair of legs, and the rear one at the end, in addition, has a small tail. Sea spiders are sedentary animals and feed by sucking hydroids, less often sponges, sea anemones or bryozoans. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to at least 30 species of sea spiders; The leg span of the largest of them reaches 20 cm.

Type of shellfish. Along with crustaceans, mollusks have the greatest commercial importance among invertebrates. The body of mollusks usually consists of a head with a mouth opening, a sac-like body in which the internal organs are located, and a muscular organ - the legs. Most mollusks are characterized by a calcareous shell, structured differently in different groups. Often the shell covers the entire body of the animal, sometimes only part of it. In the course of long-term evolution, the phylum of mollusks has developed various forms that are outwardly quite dissimilar to each other, also differing in level of organization.

Very primitive mollusks include armored mollusks, or chitons. Their body, elongated oval, convex above and flat below, is covered on top with a skeleton consisting of 8 calcareous plates, which are movably connected to each other. A chiton torn from the ground immediately curls into a ball. In some chitons, calcareous plates are completely or partially hidden under the skin. With the help of a leg that occupies most of the lower surface of the body, on both sides of which there are gills, chitons slowly crawl along the bottom. Their nervous system is extremely primitive and lacks a brain and any other nerve nodes. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to at least 20 species of chitons, including the largest of them, Steller’s cryptochiton, reaching a length of 33 cm and weighing about a kilogram. The plates of this chiton are completely hidden under the brown skin.

Gastropods, which make up a separate, most numerous (about 85 thousand species) class, are much more complex, their central nervous system consists of several pairs of nerve nodes, or ganglia; they have marked eyes, balance coordination and other senses. Most gastropods carry a shell, usually spirally twisted, less often cap-shaped, ear-shaped or saucer-shaped. Gastropods live both on land (for example, slugs and snails) and in fresh water (livebearers, pond snails and coils), but most of them live in the seas.

On the rocky coast you can always see sea limpets with a low-conical shell, capable of clinging very tightly to the rocks and therefore not afraid of the strongest surf. This mollusk has a well-expressed “home instinct”, and, slowly crawling along the rock and eating the smallest organisms, it always returns to the very place from which it began its journey.

There, in the tidal zone, small dark-colored coastal snails - littorinas with a round or cube-shaped shell - are found in large quantities. During low tide, they pull their body inside the shell, and close the mouth with a horny operculum. Littorines can remain in a state of torpor for up to a week or even more (different species have different abilities to tolerate drying out). Shore snails feed mainly on plants.

The larger umbilical snail with a spherical, strong shell has a reputation as a predator. The operculum in some species is calcareous, in others it is horny. These snails have developed a number of adaptations for digging shells out of the ground and extracting food from them. The lime of the prey's shell is softened by the acid-containing secretions of the borer gland, and then a hole is drilled using a grater, which is found in most gastropods. The umbilical snail lays its eggs in a rounded dark nest of sand.

Many of the most highly organized gastropods, including purple snails and whelks, are predators and carrion eaters. These mollusks have a siphon in the lower part of their shell, that is, an extended lower part of the mouth with a channel in the middle. Trumpeters are the largest gastropods in our seas, caught in the fishery; their shell reaches a height of 25 cm. Close to trumpeter snails, purple snails got their name by analogy: in ancient times, dye for the purple clothes of Roman emperors was extracted from one of their species living in the Mediterranean Sea.

Some gastropods lack shells. The most colorful of them - nudibranchs - are so named because their respiratory organs - gills - are located directly on their body and are not covered by anything.

Most gastropods lead a bottom-dwelling lifestyle. In more primitive forms, the larva develops in the water column, while in more complex forms the juveniles form inside the clutch. However, some groups of gastropods are known to live in the aquatic environment. These include pteropods, the legs of which form lateral wing-like lobes used for swimming.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to at least 400 species of gastropods; several dozen of them may have commercial value.

The class of bivalve mollusks in terms of the abundance of species (about 15 thousand) ranks second after gastropods, but their role in the economy of nature is more significant. Many bivalves (for example, the mussel) reach exceptionally high numbers in their habitats. The shell of these mollusks consists of. two - right and left - valves, connected by an elastic ligament and often, in addition, by special protrusions-teeth, which correspond to a notch on the opposite valve. Their body, due to a sedentary or immobile lifestyle, has become somewhat simplified. Thus, during the course of evolution, bivalves literally “lost their head,” and at the same time all the organs associated with it, as well as the pharynx. The gills, on the contrary, have undergone significant complication and, in addition to the function of respiration, acquired additional functions. They form an important part of the water-propelling device that creates water currents, and play a large role in filtering food from the water, which is absorbed into the body of the mollusk and passes through the gills. Thanks to this adaptation, the most primitive bivalves were able to extract particles of organic matter from the soil, while most bivalves are filter feeders and feed on small organisms suspended in the water column.

The sizes of bivalves vary greatly - the length of their shell varies from 2 mm to 140 cm. The weight of the largest of them - tridacnids, living in the tropical zone, can reach 200 kg (including the shell). However, such giants are not found in the seas of the USSR. In total, approximately 15 thousand species of bivalve mollusks are known that inhabit marine, brackish and fresh waters, about 4/5 of the total number of which live in the seas. Bivalve mollusks settle on a wide variety of soils; among them there are forms that movably or immovably attach to rocks, stones or shells, crawl on the surface of the ground, burrow into loose sediments, and even drill into wood or stones.

In the Far Eastern seas, the most valuable are scallops that have a more or less round or rounded-triangular shell. The scallops usually lie on the bottom on the right side, the lower (right) shell valve is more convex, and the upper (left) one is flattened. Both shell valves are furrowed with numerous ribs. The large, white or yellowish shell closing muscle is eaten. The largest and commercially most valuable Hokkaido scallop is often incorrectly called seaside scallop. Its shell reaches a length of 18 cm. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, this scallop is common in Aniva Bay and in the south of the Kuril Islands. The main enemies of the scallop are predatory starfish, to escape from which it moves by jumping in a reactive manner.

Among the most common bivalves that live on both hard and soft soils are mussels. The edible mussel, or black shell, found almost along the entire coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is very numerous - triangular-rounded, medium-sized, black-brown or black-blue in color, the length of which is approaching 9 cm. Even larger in size (up to 20 cm in length) reaches Gray's mussel - a warmer-water species than the edible mussel. We fish it mainly in the Sea of ​​Japan. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Gray's mussel is found in Aniva and Terpeniya bays off the coast of southern Sakhalin, as well as in the southern part of the Kuril Islands. Mussels are attached to rocks, stones or to each other by means of a bundle of very strong horny threads, or the so-called byssus. This method of attachment is called movable because... the mussel can tear off byssus threads. crawl to a new place and stick again, releasing new threads.

Oysters are immovably attached to the substrate, growing to it with their shell. The giant oyster, which lives in the Far East, is a relatively warm-water animal and in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is found only in the most warmed areas - in Busse Lagoon in the south of Sakhalin Island and in the extreme south of the Kuril Ridge.

Some bivalves are able to penetrate even hard substrates such as stone and wood. They belong to the group of boring organisms - stone borers and wood borers. Off the coast of eastern Sakhalin and the southern part of the Kuril Islands, the stone borer, zirthea, is found. This is a large mollusk up to 10 cm long, with a white fragile shell. The front part of the shell is covered with rows of denticles, with which the animal drills a refuge in limestone or other relatively soft rocks. Woodworm clams belong to the family of shipworms, so named due to their long, soft, thin worm-like body, reaching over 25 cm in length. A small spherical white shell is located at the anterior end of the body, both of its valves are armed with jagged and serrated ridges, with the help of which the shipworm drills into wood. As the mollusk is drilled into the board, it increases in size, and the diameter of its home expands accordingly. As a result, the animal ends up immured in a tree for life. Interestingly, the sea worm does not feed on wood, but uses the wooden substrate as a shelter. At the rear end of its body there are inlet and outlet siphons, as well as 2 calcareous plates, which, if necessary, close the inlet.

In total, about 300 species of bivalves live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, of which about 20 species are of interest to fishermen. Larger forms are suitable for consumption, while smaller ones are suitable for making flour.

Cephalopods. If, due to a sedentary or immobile lifestyle, the body of bivalve mollusks has become noticeably simplified, then the mobile and dynamic cephalopods have undergone significant progressive evolution and turned into the most highly organized representatives of the world of invertebrate animals. It is no coincidence that cephalopods are sometimes called primates of the sea. Their characteristic feature is the absence of a shell, which was gradually reduced and was preserved only in the most primitive of living cephalopods - the nautilus, an inhabitant of the tropics. The tentacles located around the mouth on the head, from which cephalopods got their name, developed from the leg on which gastropods, armored and other mollusks crawl to this day. The number of tentacles in a nautilus reaches several dozen, in octopuses there are eight, and in squid and cuttlefish there are ten. Each tentacle bears one or two, less often three or four, longitudinal rows of suckers. True, cephalopods cannot suck blood from the victim, as some fiction writers claimed not so long ago, with the help of these suction cups, since their bottom is closed. All cephalopods are predators, attacking not only small but also quite large animals, such as crabs and fish. Prey is captured and held by tentacles with suction cups, and the horny beak, which is located in the muscular pharynx, is used to kill it. Cephalopods can move in water very quickly, and they do this with the help of a kind of jet engine. Its structure is peculiar: the inner end of the tube, which is called a funnel, or siphon, and comes out near the head of the mollusk, leading into the vast internal cavity of the animal. Having sucked water through the gap, the cephalopod then forcefully pushes it out through the funnel. In this case, a reactive force arises, which moves the mollusk in the direction opposite to the direction of the siphon.

Cephalopods have a highly developed nervous system, and the brain, which in octopuses is hidden in a cartilaginous capsule - some semblance of a skull, is characterized by a complex structure. The eyes of cephalopods are also complex and reach record sizes - up to 40 cm in diameter in giant octopuses, which is almost three times the diameter of the eye of the giant of the oceans - the blue whale.

Many cephalopods are capable of changing color to match the surrounding background. About one quarter of cephalopod species, especially those living at significant depths, can glow.

Some of the cephalopods prefer thick water to live, while others prefer sheltered places on the bottom of the sea, from where they lie in wait for prey. Most squids and some octopuses are considered excellent swimmers; cuttlefish and most octopuses lead a benthic or benthic lifestyle. The main food of cephalopods is fish, crabs and bivalves, as well as cephalopods, including individuals of their species.

In the countries of Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean, the taste and nutritional benefits of shellfish were valued in ancient times. In the USSR, cephalopods began to be hunted in significant quantities relatively recently, but already now the population’s demand for products made from them has exceeded supply. Squid and octopus are sold in the form of canned food, semi-finished products and in kind. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, commercial aggregations of cephalopods are found mainly in southern Sakhalin and in the southern Kuril Islands; In total, over 40 species of these animals live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, including the Kurilsky region.

Type tentacled. Of this type of sessile, mainly marine animals, bryozoans are the most numerous and widespread. Their colonies are usually calcified and have a branched, bushy, leaf-shaped, crust-like or lumpy shape, but sometimes they form openwork networks. The color of the colonies is white, gray or bright, usually orange or red. Individual bryozoan specimens rarely exceed 1 mm in length. Appearing to be worm-like, these animals are enclosed in a calcareous or gelatinous cell with a hole. Every now and then sticking out the front end, which carries the mouth with a simple or horseshoe-shaped corolla of tentacles around it, seated with cilia, the bryozoans drive food particles towards the mouth with them. In the tropics, along with coral polyps and calcareous algae, bryozoans play an important role in the formation of reefs. By building their skeletons from lime, many of them contribute to the accumulation of calcium carbonate on the bottom of seas and oceans. Such soils with an abundance of shells and bryozoan skeletons are typical, for example, of the South Kuril Strait. Of the 3,000 known species of bryozoans, over two hundred live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Some of them are found here in large numbers, especially on pebble soils at a depth of 30-50 m.

Type Brachiopods. Their heyday passed many millions of years ago, back in the Paleozoic, when there were several thousand species of brachiopods, but now a little more than three hundred are known. These are exclusively marine solitary attached animals, the body of which is enclosed in a bivalve shell, but unlike mollusks, the valves cover the brachiopods not from the sides, but from the dorsal and ventral sides. The most primitive forms burrow into the ground using a long fleshy stalk, or leg, with which they are attached to the bottom of the burrow. Most prefer a solid substrate, growing to it with a shortened stem or lower valve. The body of the animal itself occupies only the lower part of the space between the valves. On both sides of the mouth extend two “arms” - spirally twisted long outgrowths, seated with a double row of small tentacles, which in turn are covered with cilia. These "arms" occupy the front of the space inside the sink and... creating a current of water by the movement of the cilia, they serve for nutrition and respiration. Only six species of brachiopods live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. In the north and off the Sea of ​​Okhotsk coast of the middle and northern Kuril Islands, one of them is found even at low tide.

Type bristle-jawed. The transparent body of these animals resembles an arrow and consists of a head, trunk and tail sections. The mouth, located at the anterior end of the head, is surrounded by a powerful chitinous trapping apparatus made of bristles and denticles. Chaetojaws are typical marine predators; most of them spend their entire lives in the water column, although crawling forms are also found. For swimming, they have fins on the sides of the body and on the tail. Fish, including salmon, readily eat chaetognaths, whose body length can reach 9 cm. Of the 140 known species of chaetognaths, only 13 live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, 7 of which are deep-sea.

Type echinoderm. This type includes many animals that are extremely unique in appearance: starfish, sea urchins, snaketails, sea lilies and sea cucumbers, or sea capsules. They are characterized by a calcareous skeleton, which in most groups is clearly visible from the outside, while in holothurians it consists of microscopic calcareous bodies, or needles. The vast majority of echinoderms lead a bottom-dwelling lifestyle, but their larvae usually develop in the water column. The nervous system and sensory organs are poorly developed.

Sea lily class. Externally, sea lilies bear little resemblance to animals. Just like ancient fossil echinoderms, their mouth opening is located at the top, and not on the underside of the body and not in front, like other living echinoderms. This is due to the fact that the ancestors of echinoderms led an attached lifestyle, which today is inherited by only part of the crinoids. The body of the sea line consists of a small body, or cup, and five long rays, or arms, extending from it, which bifurcate near the base. This gives the impression that there are ten rays. In more primitive lilies, a long cape extends down from the calyx, with which they are attached to the bottom. In other lilies that lead a floating lifestyle, the stalk is usually lost and a tuft of tendrils develops instead. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, only three species of crinoids are known, living at depths of over 120 m.

Starfish live up to their name - their body really looks like a star, there are usually five rays, less often six or more. The central disk from which the rays extend is not always clearly expressed, so the whole body seems to consist of only rays connected by bases. The starfish moves with the help of soft small suction cup legs located in the grooves on the underside of the rays. Despite their small mouth, poorly developed muscles and low movement speed, most starfish are active predators, attacking mainly bivalves, as well as sea urchins, worms and other large invertebrates and even fish.

Opening the shell flaps, the star takes it not with force, but with patience. It wraps its rays around the shell, and firmly sticks to the shell with its legs. By stubbornly and methodically trying to push them apart, the predator ensures that the closing muscle of the mollusk shell gets tired and relaxes. Then another remarkable mechanism comes into play: the starfish turns its stomach out through its mouth and envelops it in the soft body of the mollusk (or other prey). Having digested the prey, the predator crawls to a new place. Starfish are a real disaster for oyster and indium banks, coral reefs, as well as cultivated invertebrate plantations. Their ability to regenerate is very well expressed: from one severed ray a whole star can grow.

In most starfish, fertilization is external; larval development passes through several free-swimming forms. But it is in the Far Eastern waters that stars without floating larvae are not uncommon. Their eggs mature either in clutches covered by a disk and rays, or in balls near the mother’s mouth, or eggs and young develop inside the mother’s body, and then we can observe cases of viviparity.

Over 80 species of starfish have been identified in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. It was here, or rather in Broughton Bay on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk coast of Simushir Island (middle Kuril Islands), several years ago, an employee of the Institute of Marine Biology V.I. Lukin found the world's second largest and largest starfish in the USSR, reaching a size of beams 98 cm.

Snaketails, or brittle stars, are somewhat reminiscent of starfish, but their body is always sharply divided into a disk and thin, long, sometimes branching rays. Usually these are small animals with a ray span of 1-3 cm, but some forms, for example, a gorgonocephalus with branched tentacles, reach a ray span of 1 m with a disc diameter of up to 143 mm. At least 50 species of brittle stars are known in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

The mouth of sea stars, darters and sea urchins is located at the bottom; these are crawling animals.

Sea urchins are spherical, heart-shaped or disc-shaped organisms; their body is covered with needles, the length and thickness of which varies greatly among different forms. Their entire body is enclosed in a shell consisting of calcareous plates fastened together and pierced with holes. Quills are movably attached to the carapace, which serve not only for protection, but also, along with suction cup legs, for movement. The mouth opening is equipped with five teeth of a special chewing apparatus - Aristotle's lantern. Hedgehogs eat both plant and animal foods. Some species cause significant damage to seaweed thickets. Most hedgehogs crawl along the bottom, but many are capable of burrowing and live in burrows. Round sea urchins are eaten, and in a number of countries their canned caviar is highly valued. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to about ten species of sea urchins, at least three of which may be of commercial importance.

Of all the echinoderms, lovers of seafood delicacies are most familiar with sea egg capsules, or sea cucumbers, which includes the famous sea cucumber. The body of holothurians is quite soft, more or less worm-like, the mouth is located at the anterior end and is surrounded by a corolla of short unbranched or long branched tentacles. Most of them have five double rows of sucker legs, but worm-like forms without legs are also known. Holothurians lead a bottom lifestyle, but one genus of them lives only in the water column. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to over 30 species of sea cucumbers, of which only two are commercial - sea cucumber and Japanese cucumber. Trepang is found in very small quantities in the extreme south of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, off the coast of southern Sakhalin and Kunashir Island. Kuku City Hall is more widespread, but a significant concentration appears to form in the South Curl Strait, between the islands of Shikotan and Kunashir.

Type chordates. Along with vertebrates, this broad type includes a number of much more primitive animals, of which we will dwell only on subtype of tunicates, or Larval chordates. They live solitarily or in colonies, in an attached or free-floating state; the dorsal string, or chord, is located in the caudal region of the body. True, in most tunicates the notochord exists only in the larvae and subsequently disappears. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk there are quite numerous representatives class ascidians- solitary or colonial, almost exclusively attached organisms. Their body is in the shape of a bag, one end attached to the substrate. At the opposite end there are two short protrusions - inlet and outlet siphons. The body of tunicates is enclosed in a special dense shell, or tunic, consisting of a substance close to fiber.

Due to the sessile, attached lifestyle, the body organization of adult ascidians is significantly simplified even in comparison with the structure of the larva; This especially applies to the nervous system and organs of vision - the latter are present in the larva, but absent in the adult animal. Some ascidians form large ones; often brightly colored forms. Ascidians have no commercial significance in our country, although some of their species could become a source of such a valuable element as vanadium, which they accumulate in their bodies.

Subphylum vertebrates. Representatives of this subtype live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk classes of fish And mammals; sea ​​snakes belonging to the class of reptiles are absent here.

Of the nearly 300 species of fish, over 20 species are anadromous and brackish-water and more than 50 species are deep-sea. The largest number of species (10 or more) in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk are represented by the families of flounder (25 species), northern gobies, or sculpin, or slingshot (over 40 species), sea chanterelles, or agony, similar in structure to slingshot gobies (18 species), eelpouts (more than 35 species), lipariformes, or sea slugs (41 species), lumpfish, or roundfins, stichaeidae and salmonids (10 species each).

Of this many fish, the leading place in the fishery is occupied only by salmon, but even then not all of them, but only chum salmon, pink salmon, sockeye salmon, or red salmon, then coho salmon and chinook salmon. In third place are real salmon - Kamchatka salmon and char - kunja and malma. The role of masu salmon in the fishery is not so noticeable, and on the Sakhalin coast - the Sakhalin taimen, or lentil.

Less valued are flounder fish, whose meat is much cheaper than salmon, with the exception, perhaps, of white-skinned and black, or blue-skinned, halibut. Flounders belong to the order of flatfishes, which are very well adapted to the bottom lifestyle: their body is strongly flattened on the sides, on one of which (right or left - different families of flounders have different ways) the fish lies on the ground. This side of the body is lighter in color, and the eyes are shifted to the functionally upper, darker side. In real flounders - representatives of the flounder family, which only live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the eyes are on the right, although in some species there are separate left-sided forms. In addition to halibuts, flounders such as yellow-bellied, yellowfin, star, and some other species are also of great importance in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Many flounders burrow into the ground, and they do this extremely quickly. These fish are also interesting for their ability to quickly change the color of their upper (eye) side of the body, amazingly accurately matching it to the color and pattern of the ground, thanks to which they become almost invisible.

Scientists consider the families of whitefish, smelt and salanx to be close relatives of salmon. Of the whitefishes, which mainly live in fresh waters, the Amur whitefish is found in the Amur Estuary and off northern Sakhalin. The most common smelt fish in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk are toothed and smallmouth smelt, as well as capelin or hake.

The Salanx family includes migratory noodle fish, which sometimes invade the mouths of some rivers in large numbers. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk it is often found in the Amur Estuary and in the Bay of Baikal in the north of Sakhalin Island.

The order Salmonidae also includes some deep-sea and therefore little-known families of fish, for example, silverfish, batilagiformes and some others.

We don’t have to say much about the value of sturgeon, including the Sakhalin sturgeon, but it is very rare, recorded only in Aniva Bay and the Amur Estuary. In the same estuary there are also Amur sturgeon and a much larger relative of the beluga, the kaluga, which reaches a length of 5.6 m and weighs 380 kg. The main habitat of Amur sturgeon and kaluga is the Amur River. The sturgeon catch in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is extremely insignificant.

Pacific herring is of much greater commercial importance, having chosen coastal areas for spawning grounds in the north of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and off the coast of Sakhalin and Kamchatka.

The only species of carp fish that lives not in fresh, but in brackish and sea waters is the Far Eastern rudd, or ugai. This fish reaches a length of 50 cm and weighs up to 1.5 kg. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the rudd lives in Aniva Bay, as well as in the west, in the Amur Estuary, the Bay of Happiness and further north, up to the Shantar Islands. Ugai serves mainly as an object of amateur fishing.

Pacific cod is distributed everywhere in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, but its largest concentrations are noted off the western coast of Kamchatka. Representing a subspecies of Atlantic cod, pasha cod differs from it in its larger and wider head, bottom caviar and, unfortunately, coarser and less tasty meat. Pacific cod reaches a length of 120 cm.

If in the Atlantic Ocean the most numerous of the cod fish is cod, then in the Pacific Ocean the palm undoubtedly belongs to pollock. Pollock is much smaller than cod, its meat is less tasty, but its liver contains more vitamin A than the famous cod liver, from which medical fish oil is rendered. Pollock is widespread in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, especially in its northwestern and northern parts, as well as off the coast of Sakhalin and Kamchatka.

Unlike cod, Pacific navaga is so different from its northern namesake that it is distinguished as an independent species. It is found off the coast of all Far Eastern seas, is tasty and serves as an object of not only commercial, but also recreational fishing, usually in winter, when navaga is suitable for spawning.

Sticklebacks are a special family of small fish with folding spines on the back and belly and often armored with bony plates on the sides of the body. Along the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the three-spined stickleback (with three spines on its back) is found. Stickleback is considered a “trash” fish, but its fat has valuable properties and is used in medicine in the treatment of wounds, as well as for technical purposes. Another species, the nine-spined stickleback, was recorded at the mouth of the Amur and in the brackish waters of lagoons and bays. The male stickleback is known as a caring family man. The object of his special efforts is a nest, which he builds from various plant remains, gluing them together with sticky threads. Usually it is fixed either on the ground (in the three-spined stickleback) or on the stems of underwater plants (in the nine-spined stickleback),

The order Perciformes includes a large number of families of fish of very diverse, often quite bizarre shapes. True, only a few of them have commercial significance in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The suborder of blenny-shaped perciformes includes fish with an elongated, often eel-like body, bearing very long dorsal and anal fins and covered with small scales. Many of them, especially those without scales, are called “loaches” or “burbots” by the local population, although real loaches are freshwater fish from the order Cyprinidae, and burbot are freshwater and sea fish from the order Gadidae.

The eastern catfish reaches large sizes, over 1 m in length. Its relatively large head is armed with large teeth, giving it a terrifying appearance. This fish is equipped not only with sharp teeth in front, but also with tuberculate and conical teeth located on the palate and on the lower jaw behind the fang-shaped anterior ones. Such an “arsenal” is required by the catfish not so much for defense or attack, but for tearing mollusks, crustaceans and echinoderms from the bottom, which it mainly feeds on. Its meat is quite tasty, but we almost never catch catfish; in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, eastern catfish are found in the Ayansky region, in Aniva Bay and in the south of the Kuril Islands.

The eastern viviparous eelpout is interesting because it does not spawn, but gives birth to (usually several dozen) fry. The Germans still call the closely related European subspecies “mother acne.” According to legend, for a long time German fishermen could not find out how and where the common eel reproduced, and they innocently believed that the eelpout gave birth to eels. Likodas also belong to the same eelpout family, some of which reach 0.7-1 m in length. These cold-water bottom-dwelling fish usually live on muddy bottoms, sometimes burrowing into loose substrates.

The suborder mackerel includes the well-known Japanese mackerel, numerous in Peter the Great Bay, off the coast of southern Sakhalin and in the south of the Kuril Islands. In favorable years, it penetrates to the north - all the way to Okhotsk. The length of mackerel is 50-60 cm with a maximum weight of 1.5-1.7 kg. Constantly making significant migrations, this fish penetrates our seas only when the waters warm up to 8-10°C or more.

Also numerous in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is the order of scorpionfishes, which are close to the perciformes. The scorpionfish family includes commercial sea bass, scorpionfish, or sea ruffs, and spiny fish. In contrast to the scorpionfishes, which are widespread in various oceans, the suborder Terpidae inhabited only the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. Only two families belong to it, one of which, including sable fish, valuable for its taste, is unfortunately absent in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Representatives of another family of greenlings - the one-finned and browed greenlings - are common here. They can be distinguished by their long dorsal fin, which in the one-finned greenling has no notch, and in the browed one - with a noticeable notch approximately in the middle. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, several species of browed greenlings are of commercial importance: brown, spotted and red, or hare-headed. The greenling is found in small numbers in Aniva Bay and in the south of the Kuril Islands. The meat of different types of these fish varies in taste and even color. In some species it is green or bluish, but when cooked, however, it becomes discolored. In the retail chain, greenlings are often sold under the name sea bass, which is incorrect.

The order of Scorpiformes also includes a large suborder of Slingshots, whose skin is usually not covered with normal scales and is either bare or bears plates, spines or tubercles. Many representatives of this suborder are often called gobies, although real gobies belong to another order - perciformes. The appearance of sea chanterelles is unusual: their body is covered, like armor, with regular longitudinal rows of plates. These are small, up to 20 cm in length, bottom-dwelling fish, whose body shape often resembles a spindle. They are not consumed as food, but after aging in a solution of formaldehyde and alcohol, followed by drying, they produce original souvenirs.

Sea slugs, completely devoid of scales, large-headed, with soft muscles and thin, often transparent skin, cannot even be immediately called a fish - they so strikingly resemble tadpoles. Their ventral fins fuse and form a sucker. The genus Kaleproctus is especially richly represented in our country, for which the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is apparently the ancestral home. In any case, about half of all known species of this genus (22 out of 48) live in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Sea slugs spawn in winter. By this time, the female has grown an ovipositor in the form of a long leathery tube. Using this device, she lays mature eggs in the peribranchial cavity of the king crab. Here, the eggs are inaccessible to predators and are provided with oxygen, since the crab’s gills are constantly washed by water.

Of our few representatives of cartilaginous fish, only one species of small spiny shark, or katran, lives in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, rarely reaching a length of 2 m and weighing about 14 kg. This shark does not spawn, but gives birth to small (20-26 cm long) sharks. The spiny shark is edible, and many people find its meat even tasty. One or two species of rays noted in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk - highly flattened bottom cartilaginous species - have no commercial significance.

Mammals. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the adjacent Kuril Islands have long been developed by sea hunters. A number of valuable mammals lived here, for example, the sea otter, or sea otter, seal, various whales, etc. But in the second half of the 19th century, as a result of the invasion of poachers from the USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Japan and England, the stocks of marine mammals in The Sea of ​​Okhotsk was severely undermined, some species were completely exterminated (walrus and bowhead whale) or were on the verge of destruction. Particularly affected was the sea otter, or sea otter, the only marine representative of a vast order of predators. The sea otter belongs to the mustelidae family, and, indeed, is quite close to another representative of the mustelids - the river otter. The fur traders who called it the sea or Kamchatka beaver apparently paid attention to some external similarity between the fur of a beaver and a sea otter, but the beaver belongs to a different order - rodents. The sea otter is a rather large animal, especially in comparison with its relatives: the body length of a male can reach almost 1.5, and that of a female - 1.3 m with a weight of up to 42 and 36 kg, respectively. The delicate and silky fur of the sea otter is extremely durable, which naturally increases its value even more. Despite its marine "registration", the sea otter is less adapted to the aquatic lifestyle than pinnipeds and cetaceans. In particular, he has virtually no subcutaneous fat. Sea otters stay close to the coast and are not inclined to go on long journeys.

An elongated ridged body with a shortened neck, hind limbs strongly shifted towards the lower end of the body and a short, flattened tail prevents the sea otter from moving freely on land, but it helps it when hunting various sea creatures. Sea otters feed mainly on sedentary large invertebrates: sea urchins, crabs, gastropods and bivalves, usually endowed with a hard exoskeleton. In this regard, their molars are very wide, strongly flattened and millstone-shaped. Back in the 18th and even partly in the 19th century, sea otters were found in abundance in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk off the coast of southwestern Kamchatka, all the Kuril Islands and southeastern Sakhalin. Nowadays, the sea otter is common only off the coast of some islands in the northern and middle parts of the Kuril Islands.

Pinnipeds. In structure, pinnipeds are close to terrestrial predatory animals, but they stand out as an independent order, adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. Their body is elongated, spindle-shaped, balky, the head, devoid of a cervical constriction, smoothly passes into the body. With the help of flippers, the fingers of which are connected by swimming membranes, pinnipeds move in the water. The hind limbs, strongly shifted back, impart forward movement to the animal, bending like the tail of a fish. The front flippers act as rudders. A thick subcutaneous fat layer, and in young seals, as well as fur seals, warm fur helps to withstand low temperatures in the aquatic environment. Pinnipeds feed on fish, mollusks, crustaceans and other large invertebrates.

Pinnipeds include the families of eared and true seals, as well as walruses, which were once found in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Recently, many researchers believe that eared and true seals originated from different groups of predators: eared seals from primitive bear-like animals, and true seals from primitive mustelids. Spending most of their lives in water, pinnipeds nevertheless could not completely tear themselves away from land, at least from solid substrate. In the first days of life, seal pups, falling into the water, die from wet fur and subsequent hypothermia. Since many seals hatch directly on the ice, their milk contains up to 40% fat. The assertion that seals cause significant damage to fisheries is without sufficient grounds. Most of them feed on low-value fish and, with the exception of sealed seals. does not at all encroach on schools of salmon and herring.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to two species of eared seals and four species of true seals.

When moving on the ground, eared seals (steller sea lions and fur seals) rely on their hind limbs, bending them forward. The largest of them is the sea lion, or sea lion, reaching a length of 4 m and weighing up to 800 kg. True, only males are such big guys. Although the females are inferior to them, they are not at all so small - up to 2.5 m in length and weighing up to 350 kg. The fur of sea lions consists of coarse, sparse hair. The color changes with age, from chestnut in juveniles to straw in adults. Sea lions set up their rookeries for breeding young sea lions on secluded rocks or on uninhabited islands. Males acquire “harems”, which can include up to several dozen females. “Bachelors” and “youth” lie at a distance from both the harems and each other.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, sea lion rookeries are noted near the Shantar Islands, on the Zavyalov, Yamsky, Iona, Kuril Islands, and sometimes in Zabiyaka and Babushkina bays. The animals live here only in the summer, and then swim south.

The fur seal is undoubtedly the most valuable game animal among pinnipeds. It is significantly smaller than the sea lion, although the male reaches impressive sizes - up to 2 m in length. The female is smaller than the male, her body length does not exceed 1.25 m. It is not all the fur of a seal that is valued - the hair itself, like other seals, is hard - but the soft, thick underfur, which is absent in other seals. Seals come to our seas only in the summer-autumn period to breed. Like sea lions, the seal is a polygamous animal. Within the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, fur seals are found on some Kuril Islands. On Tyuleniy Island, near Sakhalin, a reserve has been organized with strictly limited fishing for these animals.

Unlike long-eared seals, real seals do not have ears; their hind limbs cannot bend forward and when animals move on land, they drag along the ground. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is home to four species of true seals: the ringed seal, the lionfish, the seal and the bearded seal.

Residents of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk coast often also call the ringed seal akiba, or akipkon. This is the smallest of the Far Eastern seals: its body length does not exceed 140 cm, and its weight is 55 kg. Akiba settled along the western coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk - from Tauya Bay to the Shantar Islands and Sakhalin Bay, as well as off the eastern shores of Shelikhov Bay and Sakhalin Island. She whelps in early spring, in March - April, on the ice near ice breaks and wormwood, sometimes making holes herself. The fur of puppies, white, soft and very fluffy, perfectly protects them from the cold and at the same time camouflages them. In an adult Akiba, light rings clearly appear on the body on a blackish-gray, gray or brownish background. Its fur, which is relatively thicker and longer than that of other true seals, is used to make fur products.

The lionfish is also called the ilyar, hilar, young fish, shelduck, or pinto seal. It is larger than the Akiba and reaches a length of 180-190 cm with a weight of up to 100 kg. The lionfish is less connected to the shore than other seals and spends most of its life in the open sea. An air sac located under the skin and communicating with the trachea helps it float on the water. As soon as you let the air out of it, the lionfish immediately drowns.

The male is dark, black or black-brown in color, the female is gray or brown; against a dark background, light stripes stand out on the sides of the body and in the form of a collar on the neck, as well as in the sacrum area. The lionfish does not climb onto the ice floe, clinging to it with its front flippers, as other seals do, but jumps out without touching the edge. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, this piebald seal lives mainly northeast of Sakhalin and south of Babushkin Bay. It lies on high, clean ice.

The sealed seal, pied seal, or spotted seal is characterized by numerous black or brown spots on a yellow or gray background; The flippers are also covered with spots. The body length in rare cases can exceed 2 m. The pied usually settles in lagoons, bays and small bays, penetrating south to the coasts of Japan and Korea, i.e. further than our other seals. Feeding mainly on fish - mainly salmon in the summer - spotted seals often rise considerable distances into rivers during their migration. In summer, in the northern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, its coastal rookeries can be observed almost everywhere. The animals remain here until the onset of ice or even further. In the north of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, spotted seals breed in April. Commercial concentrations of it are noted in the southern part of Shelikhov Bay and near southern Sakhalin.

The bearded seal, or sea hare, is the largest representative of the family of true seals in the Far Eastern seas. Its body reaches a length of 230 cm and weighs up to 280 kg. The color is uniform, ash or gray, without spots. Unlike akiba, lionfish and sealed seals, bearded seal calves are not white, but light ash in color. The bearded seal does not feed on fish, but on large bottom invertebrates - mollusks, echinoderms, crustaceans, etc. Therefore, seal hares usually stay close to the coast, foraging at depths of up to 100 m.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, bearded seals are most numerous in the northern and western regions, as well as in Terpeniya Bay.

Cetaceans. In contrast to sea otters and pinnipeds, cetaceans have become typical aquatic animals, although they breathe, like all mammals, atmospheric air. Most cetaceans, especially large ones, die when they dry out, suffocating under the weight of their own body. With their torpedo-shaped body, these animals resemble fish, but their caudal fin blades are located not in a vertical plane, like in fish, but in a horizontal plane. The auricles, fur and hind limbs of cetaceans completely disappeared, and the forelimbs turned into flippers and act as rudders. The tail serves as the main organ of movement in the water.

All new formations in this order are purely adaptive. The dorsal fin gives the animal greater stability. Bare, elastic, non-wettable skin reduces the friction of water on the surface of its body during rapid movement. Other adaptations include a powerful subcutaneous fat layer, the development in the fins of bundles of blood vessels of a special structure, important for thermoregulation, a sharply increased content of respiratory pigments - hemoglobin in the blood and myoglobin in the muscles... Thanks to these and a number of other acquisitions, cetaceans can be in water for up to 50 minutes, and sperm whales for up to 1.5 hours, diving hundreds of meters into the depths.

For life in the sea, an echolocation apparatus is indispensable, which has become the main means of orientation in the water among cetaceans. Adaptations to an aquatic lifestyle also include the exceptionally high calorie content of milk, containing up to 53% fat and up to 13.4% protein. The fact that the baby is born with its tail, and not head first, allows it to avoid suffocation during birth.

The order of cetaceans includes two suborders - baleen and toothed. To this day, debates about their origin continue. Some scientists believe that these suborders originated from common ancestors - some ancient predators. Others derive the genealogy of baleen and toothed whales from different groups, and explain similarities as adaptation to an aquatic lifestyle.

The suborder baleen whales includes the families of minke whales, right whales and gray whales. It was baleen whales, especially smooth whales, that were for a long time the object of predatory fishing by foreigners in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. That's why there are few of them here now. Carrying out extensive migrations in the ocean, baleen whales enter the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the summer to feed. The filtering apparatus with which they obtain food is noteworthy. This is nothing more than a multitude (130-400 on each side) of horny plates - whalebone, which are equipped with the palatine processes of the maxillary bones. The inner edge of the plate is split into a mass of bristles resembling a fringe. Adult baleen whales have no teeth at all.

The largest whale and, in general, the largest animal that has ever existed on Earth is the blue whale, the length of which can reach 33 m. Nowadays, this giant can only occasionally be seen in the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk, where it sometimes comes to feed, holding mainly in the Kurilsky region.

The second largest minke whale, reaching 27 m in length, is the herring whale, or fin whale. This is one of the most important commercial whales, often visiting the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the warm season. In the south of the Kuril Islands, there are quite numerous not so large as blue and herring whales, minke whales, or sei whales (up to 18.6 m in length). A frequent visitor to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Kuril Islands, the smallest of the minke whales (up to 10 m in length) is the minke.

The humpback whale, or humpback, belongs to another genus, but in the same family of striped whales. The body of the humpback whale is thicker and less slender than that of the minke whale; The pectoral fins are very large. The length of humpback whales is up to 17 m.

The food of striped whales depends on their location. They feed mainly on various crustaceans, mainly euphausiaceae, fish and, to a lesser extent, cephalopods and pteropods.

Of the smooth whales in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, only the Japanese whale is found - a North Pacific subspecies of the southern whale, reaching a length of 20 m. Previously, this whale was found in large quantities near the Shantar Islands, in the Olsko-Tauisk Bay, Penzhinskaya Bay and Kambalnaya Bay, but due to predation foreign whalers (in the middle of the 19th century, up to 250 ship crews killed whales in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk annually), its reserves were sharply undermined. Nowadays, after right whales were taken under legal protection in 1946, the Japanese whale herd is gradually being restored. But the bowhead whale, represented in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk by a small form - “poggy”, could not be saved: the “poggy” were completely exterminated in the last century. Right whales feed on small copepods and euphausian crustaceans, as well as pteropods.

Unlike minke whales and right whales, the gray whale, classified as a separate family, forages at the bottom. Its diet is based on bottom and benthic crustaceans, mainly amphipods. In the Far Eastern seas of the USSR, the gray whale fattens from May to October. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk it is usually found near the Shantar Islands and off the western coast of Kamchatka. The length of the gray whale reaches 15 m and weighs up to 30 tons. Currently, ship fishing for this whale is prohibited.

The suborder of toothed whales is more numerous and rich in species than baleen whales. Representatives of the families of sperm whales, beaked whales and dolphins live in the Far Eastern seas. The appearance of sperm whales is very unattractive: due to the strong development of the fat pad, the head is disproportionately large, and its front part is much longer than the lower jaw. While the upper jaw of sperm whales is almost toothless, the narrow lower jaw is lined with conical teeth, the number of which ranges from 8 to 30 pairs. Of the two species of this family - the sperm whale and the dwarf sperm whale - only the sperm whale, the largest of the toothed whales, is found in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The male is much larger than the female - its length can exceed 20 m, while the female does not reach 16 m. The sperm whale is the best diver among whales. There are known cases when sperm whales became entangled in telegraph cables at depths of up to 1128 m and died. The food of these whales is cephalopods and, to a lesser extent, fish. In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, sperm whales can often be found in the south and near the Kuril Islands.

Beaked whales are relatively large or medium-sized toothed whales. Their mouth is located at the front end of the head, which is pulled forward, forming something like a beak. There are no teeth in the upper part, and only one or two pairs of teeth in the lower part (rarely more). In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and in the area of ​​the Kuril Islands, the northern swimmer is quite common. This is a medium-sized whale - up to 12 m in length. It feeds mainly on squid, less often on fish. It was almost never mined in the USSR, especially since its meat and fat are inedible.

The dolphin family is the most extensive and includes a significant number of small and medium-sized cetaceans, the length of which does not exceed 10 m. Both jaws of most dolphins are equipped with many teeth!

In the cold waters of the seas of the Arctic Ocean, as well as in the northern regions of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, there is a beluga whale - a large dolphin, up to 6 m in length, without a dorsal fin. The body color of adults is white or yellow, while that of juveniles is darker. Chasing schools of salmon, the voracious predator sometimes rises thousands of kilometers upstream of the Amur. Once she was discovered even in Arguni! The beluga whale lives off fish, but does not disdain invertebrates and even algae.

The killer whale is the largest representative of the dolphin family. It got its name because of the highly developed and raised dorsal fin, reminiscent of a braid. This is the most dangerous predator of all sea animals. Its diet consists of fish, cephalopods and marine mammals - cetaceans, pinnipeds and sea otters, and if you're lucky, birds. When hunting in a herd, killer whales attack even very large cetaceans. The swimming speed of killer whales can reach 55 km per hour.

Other dolphins in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk include the white-winged porpoise, common dolphin, and in the area of ​​the Kuril Islands, in addition, striped dolphin, northern cetacean, Pacific short-headed and gray dolphins, pilot whales and small or black killer whales.

One of the largest and deepest seas in Russia, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, is not very popular among tourists. A variety of reasons can be cited for this: harsh climate, distance from large centers and communications hubs, and much more. However, those who are not afraid of winds and blizzards, long journeys and other adversities will be fully rewarded by the beautiful, strict nature of this protected region. Here, on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the natural landscape has been preserved almost in its original form, and amazing plants grow on the shores, washed by steel-gray and cold-burning water. Seals rest on the rocks, unique species of birds nest in the steep coastal cliffs, and bears and wolves roam the tundra. From the depths of the sea every now and then the mighty back of sea giants - whales - emerges. In a word, anyone who has visited the Sea of ​​Okhotsk at least once will retain impressions of this region for the rest of their lives.

Geography

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is located between the Bering and Sea of ​​Japan, and the largest islands located here are the famous Kuril Islands. This sea is one of the largest and deepest in Russia. These regions are also distinguished by high seismic activity, because there are more than 30 active and 70 extinct volcanoes. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is also known for its terrible, deadly tsunami waves, which are also caused by tremors. The coastline boasts the presence of large bays such as Sakhalinsky, Aniva, Tugursky, Ayan and others.

The relief of the coastline of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is exceptionally beautiful - these are dizzying high shores that drop steeply down.

Here, on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the natural landscape has been preserved almost in its original form, and amazing plants grow on the shores, washed by steel-gray and cold-burning water. Seals rest on the rocks, unique species of birds nest in the steep coastal cliffs, and bears and wolves roam the tundra.

How to get there

The main ports of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk: on the mainland - Magadan, Ayan, Okhotsk (port point); on the island of Sakhalin - Korsakov, on the Kuril Islands - Severo-Kurilsk. You can get to the waters of this sea by plane to all of the cities listed, then rent a boat. Another option is to go on a cruise along the northern seas; this is not a cheap pleasure, but this is perhaps the most comfortable type of vacation in local latitudes.

Search for air tickets to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk

Weather on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk

The climate of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is quite harsh; it is considered even colder than the Bering and Sea of ​​Japan. During the cold period, which lasts here from October to April, in the coldest zone the temperature can drop to -25 °C, and in January and February there are cold winds that often reach gale speed. In the warm season, the winds weaken somewhat, and the thermometer timidly rises to +18 °C in the warmest part of the region and to +10-11 °C in the coldest. So it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to soak up the water or splash around in it, and you probably won’t even have the desire to do so.

Flora and fauna

As mentioned above, the shores and islands of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk represent a real nature reserve. It is not surprising that against the background of a harsh rocky landscape, cut by small rivers and picturesque lakes, a bear, wolf, wolverine, red fox and many other inhabitants of northern latitudes will suddenly appear. There are also typical representatives of Arctic species, including ptarmigan and rough-legged buzzard. The vegetation of these places is also unique, outwardly not variegated or flashy, but which, in combination with small rocky hills and the view of the harsh ocean, looks simply amazing.

What to see on the Sea of ​​Okhotsk

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is a unique corner of nature, practically untouched by human influence. Here you can meet rare representatives of the animal and plant world. It is not for nothing that scientific research expeditions are traditionally sent here. Fur seals are often found on the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk; the most famous place for their stay is Tyuleniy Island, where, in addition to huge marine mammals, you can listen to and admire a huge number of birds that nest in the coastal rocks. Other marine animals - gray whales, which, unfortunately, are on the verge of complete destruction, should be looked for in Pilyutin Strait. Giants come here in search of food.

Another threatened species, sea lions, are often found on the island of Iona.

Chanter Archipelago

The massive Chanter archipelago, which includes 15 islands, deserves its own description. The harsh climate, due to which only a few months a year its coastal waters can be seen free of ice, does not allow tourists to fully enjoy the amazing scenery of this enchanting place. As a rule, sea cruises to this marvelous and abandoned land start from the beginning of July. What is the Chanter archipelago so famous for? The flora is rare in beauty - all the islands are covered with deciduous and coniferous trees. But the main wealth is the flora of Shanter. The archipelago is favored by wild seabirds, including “royal” Steller’s sea eagles - the largest and heaviest representatives of their genus. In addition, you can see terns, gulls, eiders, distinguish the silhouettes of brown bears, and in spring and summer, if you’re lucky, you can also see the shiny backs of powerful whales and belugas that move in large herds near the islands. As icing on the cake there are Larga spotted seals, ringed seals and beautiful striped seals.

The flora of the Dzhugdzhursky reserve is so original and endemic that many plants that have found life in this harsh place are not found anywhere else in the world.

Dzhugdzhursky reserve

The virtually unexplored Ayano-Maysky region, nestled in the western part of the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, hides a unique pearl of our country - the Dzhugdzhursky reserve. Its flora is so distinctive and endemic that many plants that have found life in this harsh place are not found anywhere else in the world. Representatives of the animal world include brown bears, sables, wolverines, wood grouse, white partridges, bighorn sheep and many other animals. In the waters near the reserve there are a dime a dozen funny pinnipeds: all kinds of seals, as well as the hilarious bearded seal.

In addition to flora and fauna, the Dzhugdzhursky reserve is famous for its Tsipandinsky caves with bizarre calcium deposits and stalagmites.

Golden Bottom of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk

Okhotsk

One of the oldest Russian settlements in the Far East, which was born thanks to the wintering in 1647 of the Cossacks led by Semyon Shelkovnikov, is Okhotsk. Just two years later, a small prison was erected on the site of the winter hut. The city became a port not much later: in 1716 Kuzma Sokolov built the first ship here and reached Kamchatka.

The main thing worth seeing in Okhotsk is the small Museum of Local Lore, dedicated to the history and culture of the region.

Talan Island

Talan is truly a microscopic island of land in the northern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, but the number of birds that live here amazes the imagination of every ornithologist. And you don’t have to be a big fan of birds to enjoy the view of a flashy colony of birds that build nests in the coastal rocks year after year. And this, for a moment, is more than 1.8 million of the most diverse representatives of the sky - gulls, kittiwakes, thick-billed guillemots, puffins, and many others. The permanent residents of Talan are proud Steller's sea eagles, which are called the “kings of the Far East”. But the most popular among tourists are red foxes, which are practically not afraid of “mirror cameras” and happily pose for tourists.

Magadan

Finally, one cannot fail to mention the capital of the Magadan Region, which is located on the coast of the Tauya Bay in the northern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. This, in comparison with Okhotsk, is a completely new city, which grew from a small workers’ village to a full-fledged polis from 1915 to 1929. Alas, for many of our compatriots Magadan will forever remain in memory in connection with the terrible repressions of 1937, during which a huge number of exiles arrived in the city. Almost all of Magadan, its buildings and avenues, mines and roads were built with hard labor by convoys, many of them were Soviet prisoners of war liberated from fascist camps. Today it is one of the largest ports in Russia, and its main attractions are the Jack London Lake, the “Mask of Sorrow” monument, the “Serpantinka” monument to the victims of Stalin’s repressions, the “Memory of Kolyma” museum of memory of victims of political repressions, as well as the Gallery of Modern Art.

THE SEA OF OKHOTSK is a marginal sea in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is almost completely limited by continental and island coastlines, located between the shores of Eastern Eurasia, its Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands chain, the northern tip of Hokkaido and the eastern part of Sakhalin Island. It is separated from the Sea of ​​Japan in the Tatar Strait along the line Cape Sushchev - Cape Tyk, in the La Perouse Strait along the line Cape Crillon - Cape Soya. The border with the Pacific Ocean runs from Cape Nosyappu (Hokkaido Island) along the ridge of the Kuril Islands to Cape Lopatka (Kamchatka Peninsula). Area 1603 thousand km2, volume 1316 thousand km3, greatest depth 3521 m.

The coastline is slightly indented, the largest bays are: Academies, Aniva, Sakhalinsky, Terpeniya, Tugursky, Ulbansky, Shelikhova (with Gizhiginskaya and Penzhinskaya bays); Tauiskaya, Udskaya lips. The north and northwestern shores are predominantly elevated and rocky, most of them abrasive, in places heavily altered by the sea; in Kamchatka, in the northern parts of Sakhalin and Hokkaido, as well as at the mouths of large rivers - low-lying, largely accumulative. Most of the islands are located near the coast: Zavyalova, Spafareva, Shantarskie, Yamskie, and only the small island of Jonah is located in the open sea.

Relief and geological structure of the bottom.

The bottom topography is very diverse. The shelf occupies about 40% of the bottom area, it is most common in the northern part, where it is of the submerged type, its width varies from 180 km near the Ayano-Okhotsk coast to 370 km in the Magadan region. Up to 50% of the bottom area falls on the continental slope (depths up to 2000 m). To the south part is the deepest (more than 2500 m) area of ​​the sea, occupying St. 8% pl. bottom. In the central part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the rises of the Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Oceanology are distinguished, dividing the sea depression into 3 basins (depressions): TINRO in the northeast (depth up to 990 m), Deryugin in the west (up to 1771 m) and the deepest - Kuril in the south (up to 3521 m).

The foundation of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk basin is heterogeneous; The thickness of the earth's crust is 10-40 km. The uplift in the central part of the sea has continental crust; the rise in the southern part of the sea consists of two raised blocks separated by a trough. The deep-sea Kuril Basin with oceanic crust, according to some researchers, is a captured section of the ocean plate; according to others, it is a back-arc basin. The Deryugin and TINRO basins are underlain by transitional crust. In the Deryugin basin, an increased heat flow and hydrothermal activity have been established compared to the rest of the territory, as a result of which barite structures are formed. The sedimentary cover is thickest in basins (8-12 km) and on the northern and eastern shelves, composed of Cenozoic terrigenous and siliceous-terrigenous deposits (near the Kuril Islands with an admixture of tuffaceous material). The Kuril Islands chain is characterized by intense seismicity and modern volcanism. Earthquakes that regularly occur in the area often produce dangerous tsunami waves, such as the one in 1958.

Climate.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is characterized by a monsoon climate of temperate latitudes. The sea is located relatively close to the Siberian Pole of Cold, and the Kamchatka ridges block the path to warm Pacific air masses, so in general it is cold in this area. From October to April, the combined influence of the Asian anticyclone and the Aleutian depression prevails over the sea with strong, stable northwestern and northern winds with speeds of 10-11 m/s, often reaching storm force. The coldest month is January, temperatures range from -5 to -25 °C. From May to September, the sea is under the influence of the Hawaiian anticyclone with weak southeast winds of 6-7 m/s. In general, the Pacific (summer) monsoon is weaker than the Asian (winter) monsoon. Summer temperatures (August) range from 18 °C in the southwest to 10 °C in the northeast. The average annual precipitation ranges from 300-500 mm in the north, to 600-800 mm in the west, in the southern and south-eastern parts of the sea - over 1000 mm.

Hydrological regime.

Large rivers flow into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk: Amur, Bolshaya, Gizhiga, Okhota, Penzhina, Uda. The river flow is about 600 km3/year, about 65% falls on the Amur. Desalination of the surface layer of the sea is noted. water due to the excess of river flow over evaporation. The geographical location of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, in particular its large length along the meridian, the monsoon wind regime, and water exchange through the straits of the Kuril ridge with the Pacific Ocean determine the characteristics of the hydrological regime. The total width of all the Kuril Straits reaches 500 km, but the depths above the rapids in the straits vary greatly. For water exchange with the Pacific Ocean, the Bussol straits with a depth of over 2300 m and the Kruzenshtern strait - up to 1920 m are of greatest importance. This is followed by the Frieza, Fourth Kurilsky, Ricord and Nadezhda straits, all with depths at the rapids of more than 500 m. The remaining straits have depths of less than 200 m and small cross-sectional areas. In small straits, unidirectional flows into the sea or into the ocean are usually observed. In deep straits, a two-layer circulation predominates: in the near-surface layer in one direction, in the near-bottom layer in the opposite direction. In the Bussol Strait, Pacific waters flow into the sea in the surface layers, and flow into the ocean in the bottom layers. In general, the flow of Sea of ​​Okhotsk waters predominates in the southern straits, while the influx of Pacific waters predominates in the northern straits. The intensity of water exchange through the straits is affected. seasonal and annual variability.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, a subarctic structure of waters with well-defined cold and warm intermediate layers is observed; the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Pacific and Kuril regional varieties are distinguished. There are 5 large water masses in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk: the surface one is a very thin (15-30 m) upper layer, which easily mixes and, depending on the season, takes on spring, summer or autumn modifications with corresponding characteristic values ​​of temperature and salinity; in winter, as a result of strong cooling of the surface layer, the Sea of ​​Okhotsk water mass is formed, which in spring, summer and autumn exists in the form of a cold transition layer at horizons from 40 to 150 m, the temperature in this layer is from -1.7 to 1 °C, salinity 31 -32.9‰; the intermediate one is formed as a result of the sliding of cold waters along the continental slope, is characterized by a temperature of 1.5 °C, a salinity of 33.7‰ and occupies a layer from 150 to 600 m; the deep Pacific is located in a layer from 600 to 1300 m, consists of Pacific water entering the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in the lower horizons of the deep Kuril Straits, and exists as a warm intermediate layer with a temperature of about 2.3 °C and a salinity of 34.3‰, deep Kuril the southern basin is also formed from Pacific waters, located in a layer from 1300 m to the bottom, water temperature 1.85 °C, salinity 34.7‰.

The distribution of water temperature on the surface of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk strongly depends on the season. In winter, the water cools to about -1.7 °C. In summer, the waters are heated most strongly near the island. Hokkaido up to 19 °C, in the central regions up to 10-11 °C. Salinity on the surface in the eastern part of the Kuril ridge is up to 33‰, in the western regions 28-31‰.

The circulation of surface waters is predominantly cyclonic in nature (counterclockwise), which is explained by the influence of wind conditions over the sea. Average current speeds are 10-20 cm/s, maximum values ​​can be observed in the straits (up to 90 cm/s in the La Perouse Strait). Periodic tidal currents are well expressed, the tides are mainly daily and mixed, ranging in size from 1.0-2.5 m in the southern part of the sea, up to 7 m near the Shantar Islands and 13.2 m in Penzhinskaya Bay (the largest in the seas of Russia). Significant level fluctuations (surges) of up to 2 m are caused on the coasts during the passage of cyclones.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is an arctic sea; ice formation begins in November in the bays of the northern part and by February spreads to most of the surface. Only the extreme southern part does not freeze. In April, the melting and destruction of the ice cover begins; in June, the ice completely disappears. Only in the area of ​​the Shantar Islands can sea ice partially remain until autumn.

History of the study.

The sea was discovered in the middle of the 17th century by Russian explorers I.Yu. Moskvitin and V.D. Poyarkov. The first coastal maps were compiled during the Second Kamchatka Expedition (1733-1743) (see Kamchatka Expeditions). I.F. Kruzenshtern (1805) conducted an inventory of the eastern coast of Sakhalin. G.I. Nevelskoy (1850-1855) examined the southwestern shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the mouth of the Amur River and proved the island position of Sakhalin. The first complete report on sea hydrology was compiled by S.O. Makarov (1894). In Soviet times, comprehensive research work was launched in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Systematic research has been carried out for many years by the Pacific Fisheries Research Center (TINRO-Center), the Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, several large expeditions were carried out by the Oceanology Institute on the ship "Vityaz", as well as by ships of the Hydrometeorological Service (see Federal Service of Russia for Hydrometeorology and Monitoring Environment), Oceanographic Institute and other institutions.

Economic use.

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk there are about 300 species of fish, of which about 40 are commercial species, including cod, pollock, herring, navaga, and sea bass. Salmon species are widespread: pink salmon, chum salmon, sockeye salmon, coho salmon, and chinook salmon. Inhabited by whales, seals, sea lions, and fur seals. Crabs are of great economic importance (1st place in the world in terms of commercial crab reserves). The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is promising in terms of hydrocarbons; proven oil reserves exceed 300 million tons. The largest deposits have been identified on the shelves of the Sakhalin, Magadan and West Kamchatka islands (see the article Okhotsk oil and gas province). Sea routes pass through the Sea of ​​Okhotsk connecting Vladivostok with the northern regions of the Far East and the Kuril Islands. Large ports: Magadan, Okhotsk, Korsakov, Severo-Kurilsk.

My dream is to visit Kamchatka or Sakhalin off the coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Alas, for me such a trip is long and expensive. I hope that one day I will see this beauty. And now all I can do is deepen my knowledge and watch videos about this beautiful place. I believe that my knowledge is sufficient and therefore I want describe the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Geographical characteristics of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk

I remember from school when the geography teacher told us that to describe a large geographical object you need to open the atlas and find it on the map. Then you need to make Plan characteristics Sea of ​​Okhotsk:

• name of the sea;
  
• geographical position;
  
• islands and peninsulas;
  
• dimensions;
  
• depth, salinity;
  
• economic use.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is a marginal Pacific sea. It is located near the eastern coast of Eurasia, between Kamchatka, the Kuril Islands and the mainland. His area is 1,603,000 km².The maximum depth is 3,916 m, and the average salinity is 32 ‰. Fishing is carried out in the sea fishing and seafood. The most commonly caught fish are salmon, herring, pollock, capelin, and navaga. Kamchatka is famous for its red and black caviar. This is also important transport route. There is ongoing oil development from the sea shelf.

Features of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk

If you look at the sea from above, you can see that almost everywhere the banks are high and rockye. When you look at the shore from afar, you can only see black stripes on the horizon.

Geologists prove that the eastern part of the sea is one of the most "troubled" areas world ocean. Fluctuations in the earth's crust are a common occurrence in that area. The Kamchatka-Kuril region is one of the most interesting regions of the world. Volcanoes are constantly erupting in the sea and they call it seaquake. The Kuril Islands are of volcanic origin.

It is interesting that in 1910 a hydrographic expedition took place near Magadan. The researchers did not see the small island, which is located three kilometers from the coast, and did not put it on the map. Later he was named island of misunderstanding.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is located in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Asia and is separated from the ocean by the chain of the Kuril Islands and the Kamchatka Peninsula. From the south and west it is limited by the coast of the island of Hokkaido, the eastern coast of the island of Sakhalin and the coast of the Asian continent. The sea extends significantly from southwest to northeast within a spherical trapezoid with coordinates 43°43’–62°42’ N. w. and 135°10’–164°45′ E. d. The greatest length of the water area in this direction is 2463 km, and the width reaches 1,500 km. The surface area of ​​the sea surface is 1,603 thousand km2, the length of the coastline is 10,460 km, and the total volume of sea water is 1,316 thousand km3. According to its geographical location, it belongs to the marginal seas of the mixed continental-marginal type. The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is connected to the Pacific Ocean by numerous straits of the Kuril Island chain, and to the Sea of ​​Japan - through the La Perouse Strait and through the Amur Estuary - by the Nevelsky and Tatar Straits. The average sea depth is 821 m, and the greatest is 3521 m (in the Kuril Basin).

The main morphological zones in the bottom topography are: the shelf (the mainland and island shoals of Sakhalin Island), the continental slope, on which individual underwater hills, depressions and islands are distinguished, and the deep-sea basin. The shelf zone (0–200 m) has a width of 180–250 km and occupies about 20% of the sea area. The wide and gentle continental slope (200–2000 m) in the central part of the basin occupies about 65%, and the deepest basin (more than 2500 m), located in the southern part of the sea, occupies 8% of the sea area. Within the area of ​​the continental slope, several hills and depressions are distinguished, where the depths change sharply (the rise of the Academy of Sciences, the rise of the Institute of Oceanology and the Deryugin Basin). The bottom of the deep-sea Kuril Basin is a flat abyssal plain, and the Kuril ridge is a natural threshold that fences off the sea basin from the ocean.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is connected to the Sea of ​​Japan through the Amur Estuary, Nevelskogo in the north and La Perouse in the south, and the numerous Kuril Straits are connected to the Pacific Ocean. The chain of the Kuril Islands is separated from the island of Hokkaido by the Izmena Strait, and from the Kamchatka Peninsula by the First Kuril Strait. The straits connecting the Sea of ​​Okhotsk with adjacent areas of the Sea of ​​Japan and the Pacific Ocean provide the possibility of water exchange between basins, which, in turn, have a significant impact on the distribution of hydrological characteristics. The Nevelskoy and La Perouse straits are relatively narrow and shallow, which is the reason for the relatively weak water exchange with the Sea of ​​Japan. The straits of the Kuril island chain, which stretches for about 1200 km, on the contrary, are deeper, and their total width is 500 km. The deepest waters are the Bussol (2318 m) and Kruzenshtern (1920 m) straits.

The northwestern coast of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is practically devoid of large bays, while the northern coast is significantly indented. The Taui Bay juts into it, the shores of which are indented by bays and bays. The bay is separated from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk by the Koni Peninsula.

The largest bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk lies in its northeastern part, extending 315 km into the mainland. This is Shelikhov Bay with Gizhiginskaya and Penzhinskaya bays. The Gizhiginskaya and Penzhinskaya bays are separated by the elevated Taygonos Peninsula. In the southwestern part of Shelikhov Bay, north of the Pyagina Peninsula, there is a small Yamskaya Bay.
The western coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula is leveled and practically devoid of bays.

The shores of the Kuril Islands are complex in their outline and form small bays. On the Sea of ​​Okhotsk side, the largest bays are located near the island of Iturup, which are deep and have a very complexly dissected bottom.

Quite a lot of mostly small rivers flow into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, therefore, despite the significant volume of its waters, the continental flow is relatively small. It is approximately 600 km3 per year, with about 65% of the flow coming from the Amur River. Other relatively large rivers - Penzhina, Okhota, Uda, Bolshaya (in Kamchatka) - bring significantly less fresh water to the sea. The flow comes mainly in spring and early summer. At this time, its greatest influence is felt mainly in the coastal zone, near the mouths of large rivers.

The shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk in different areas belong to different geomorphological types. For the most part, these are abrasive shores modified by the sea, and only on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Sakhalin Island are there accumulative shores. The sea is mostly surrounded by high and steep shores. In the north and northwest, rocky ledges descend directly to the sea. Along the Sakhalin Bay the shores are low. The southeastern coast of Sakhalin is low, and the northeastern coast is low. The shores of the Kuril Islands are very steep. The northeastern coast of Hokkaido is predominantly low-lying. The coast of the southern part of Western Kamchatka has the same character, but the shores of its northern part are somewhat elevated.

Based on the characteristics of the composition and distribution of bottom sediments, three main zones can be distinguished: the central zone, which is composed mainly of diatomaceous silt, silty-clayey and partially clayey silts; zone of distribution of hemipelagic and pelagic clays in the western, eastern and northern parts of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk; as well as a zone of distribution of heterogeneous sands, sandstones, gravels and silts - in the northeast of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk. Coarse clastic material, which is the result of ice rafting, is ubiquitous.

The Sea of ​​Okhotsk is located in the monsoon climate zone of temperate latitudes. A significant part of the sea in the west extends deep into the mainland and lies relatively close to the cold pole of the Asian landmass, so the main source of cold for the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is located to the west of it. The relatively high ridges of Kamchatka make it difficult for warm Pacific air to penetrate. Only in the southeast and south is the sea open to the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of ​​Japan, from where a significant amount of heat enters it. However, the influence of cooling factors is stronger than warming ones, so the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is generally cold.

In the cold part of the year (from October to April), the sea is affected by the Siberian Anticyclone and the Aleutian Low. The influence of the latter extends mainly to the southeastern part of the sea. This distribution of large-scale pressure systems causes strong, sustained northwest and northerly winds, often reaching gale force. In winter, the wind speed is usually 10–11 m/s.

In the coldest month - January - the average air temperature in the north-west of the sea is –20…–25°С, in the central regions - –10…–15°С, and in the south-eastern part of the sea - –5…–6° WITH.

In autumn-winter, cyclones are predominantly of continental origin. They bring with them increased wind, sometimes a decrease in air temperature, but the weather remains clear and dry, as continental air arrives from the cooled mainland. In March - April, a restructuring of large-scale pressure fields occurs, the Siberian anticyclone is destroyed, and the Hawaiian maximum intensifies. As a result, during the warm season (from May to October), the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is influenced by the Hawaiian High and the low pressure area located over Eastern Siberia. At the same time, weak south-easterly winds prevail over the sea. Their speed usually does not exceed 6–7 m/s. These winds are most common in June and July, although stronger northwest and northerly winds are sometimes observed during these months. In general, the Pacific (summer) monsoon is weaker than the Asian (winter) monsoon, since in the warm season the horizontal pressure gradients are smoothed out.

In summer, the average monthly air temperature in August decreases from the southwest to the northeast (from 18°C ​​to 10–10.5°C).

In the warm season, tropical cyclones quite often pass over the southern part of the sea. They are associated with increased winds to storm force, which can last up to 5–8 days. The predominance of south-eastern winds in the spring-summer season leads to significant cloudiness, precipitation, and fog.

Monsoon winds and stronger winter cooling of the western part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk compared to the eastern are important climatic features of this sea.

Geographical location, large length along the meridian, monsoon wind changes and good communication between the sea and the Pacific Ocean through the Kuril Straits are the main natural factors that most significantly influence the formation of the hydrological conditions of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

The flow of surface Pacific waters into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk occurs mainly through the northern straits, in particular through the First Kuril Strait.

In the upper layers of the southern part of the Kuril ridge, the flow of Sea of ​​Okhotsk waters predominates, and in the upper layers of the northern part of the ridge, the influx of Pacific waters occurs. In the deep layers, the influx of Pacific waters predominates.

The influx of Pacific waters significantly affects the distribution of temperature, salinity, the formation of the structure and general circulation of the waters of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk.

The following water masses are distinguished in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk:

• surface water mass that has spring, summer and autumn modifications. It is a thin heated layer 15–30 m thick, which limits the upper maximum of stability, mainly determined by temperature;
• the Sea of ​​Okhotsk water mass is formed in winter from surface water and in spring, summer and autumn appears in the form of a cold intermediate layer lying between horizons of 40–150 m. This water mass is characterized by a fairly uniform salinity (31–32‰) and varying temperatures;
• The intermediate water mass is formed mainly due to the descent of water along underwater slopes, within the sea, located from 100–150 to 400–700 m, and is characterized by a temperature of 1.5 ° C and a salinity of 33.7‰. This body of water is distributed almost everywhere;
• the deep Pacific water mass is the water of the lower part of the warm layer of the Pacific Ocean, entering the Sea of ​​Okhotsk at horizons below 800–1000 m. This water mass is located at horizons of 600–1350 m, has a temperature of 2.3 ° C and a salinity of 34.3‰ .

The water mass of the southern basin is of Pacific origin and represents deep water of the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean near the 2300 m horizon. This water mass fills the basin from the 1350 m horizon to the bottom and is characterized by a temperature of 1.85 ° C and a salinity of 34.7‰, which change only slightly with depth.

The water temperature at the sea surface decreases from south to north. In winter, almost everywhere the surface layers are cooled to a freezing temperature of –1.5…–1.8°C. Only in the southeastern part of the sea does it remain around 0°C, and near the northern Kuril Straits, under the influence of Pacific waters, the water temperature reaches 1–2°C.
Spring warming at the beginning of the season mainly leads to the melting of ice, only towards the end of it does the water temperature begin to rise.

In summer, the distribution of water temperature on the sea surface is quite varied. In August, the warmest waters (up to 18–19°C) are those adjacent to the island of Hokkaido. In the central regions of the sea, the water temperature is 11–12°C. The coldest surface waters are observed off the island of Jonah, off Cape Pyagin and near the Krusenstern Strait. In these areas, the water temperature is between 6–7°C. The formation of local centers of increased and decreased water temperatures on the surface is mainly associated with the redistribution of heat by currents.

The vertical distribution of water temperature varies from season to season and from place to place. In the cold season, temperature changes with depth are less complex and varied than in warm seasons.

In winter, in the northern and central regions of the sea, water cooling extends to horizons of 500–600 m. The water temperature is relatively uniform and varies from –1.5…–1.7°С on the surface to –0.25°С at horizons of 500–600 m , deeper it rises to 1–0°С, in the southern part of the sea and near the Kuril Straits the water temperature from 2.5–3°С on the surface decreases to 1–1.4°С at horizons of 300–400 m and then gradually increases up to 1.9–2.4°C in the bottom layer.

In summer, surface waters are heated to a temperature of 10–12°C. In the subsurface layers, the water temperature is slightly lower than on the surface. A sharp drop in temperature to -1...-1.2°C is observed between horizons of 50–75 m, deeper, to horizons of 150–200 m, the temperature quickly rises to 0.5–1°C, and then it rises more smoothly, and at horizons of 200–250 m it is 1.5–2°С. Further, the water temperature remains almost unchanged until the bottom. In the southern and southeastern parts of the sea, along the Kuril Islands, the water temperature from 10–14°С on the surface drops to 3–8°С at a horizon of 25 m, then to 1.6–2.4°С at a horizon of 100 m and up to 1.4–2°С at the bottom. The vertical temperature distribution in summer is characterized by a cold intermediate layer. In the northern and central regions of the sea the temperature is negative, and only near the Kuril Straits it has positive values. In different areas of the sea, the depth of the cold intermediate layer is different and varies from year to year.

The distribution of salinity in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk varies relatively little between seasons. Salinity increases in the eastern part, which is under the influence of Pacific waters, and decreases in the western part, desalinated by continental runoff. In the western part, the surface salinity is 28–31‰, and in the eastern part it is 31–32‰ and more (up to 33‰ near the Kuril ridge).

In the northwestern part of the sea, due to desalination, the salinity on the surface is 25‰ or less, and the thickness of the desalinated layer is about 30–40 m.

Salinity increases with depth in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. At horizons of 300–400 m in the western part of the sea, salinity is 33.5‰, and in the eastern part it is about 33.8‰. At a horizon of 100 m, salinity is 34‰ and then towards the bottom it increases slightly, by only 0.5–0.6‰.

In individual bays and straits, the salinity value and its stratification may differ significantly from the waters of the open sea, depending on local conditions.

In accordance with temperature and salinity, denser waters are observed in winter in the northern and central areas of the sea, covered with ice. The density is somewhat lower in the relatively warm Kuril region. In summer, the density of water decreases, its lowest values ​​are confined to zones of influence of coastal runoff, and the highest are observed in areas of distribution of Pacific waters. In winter, it rises slightly from the surface to the bottom. In summer, its distribution depends on temperature in the upper layers, and on salinity in the middle and lower layers. In summer, a noticeable vertical density stratification of waters is created; the density increases especially noticeably at horizons of 25–50 m, which is associated with warming of waters in open areas and desalination near the coast.

Intense ice formation over most of the sea stimulates enhanced thermohaline winter vertical circulation. At depths of up to 250–300 m, it spreads to the bottom, and below it is prevented by the maximum stability that exists here. In areas with rugged bottom topography, the spread of density mixing into the lower horizons is facilitated by the sliding of water along the slopes.

Under the influence of winds and the influx of water through the Kuril Straits, the characteristic features of the system of non-periodic currents of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk are formed. The main one is a cyclonic system of currents, covering almost the entire sea. It is caused by the predominance of cyclonic atmospheric circulation over the sea and the adjacent part of the Pacific Ocean. In addition, stable anticyclonic gyres can be traced in the sea.

Strong currents move around the sea along the coastline counterclockwise: the warm Kamchatka Current, the stable East Sakhalin Current and the rather strong Soya Current.

And finally, another feature of the circulation of the waters of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk is two-way stable currents in most of the Kuril Straits.

Currents on the surface of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk are most intense off the western coast of Kamchatka (11–20 cm/s), in the Sakhalin Bay (30–45 cm/s), in the area of ​​the Kuril Straits (15–40 cm/s), over the Kuril Basin (11 –20 cm/s) and during the Soya River (up to 50–90 cm/s).

In the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, various types of periodic tidal currents are well expressed: semidiurnal, diurnal and mixed with a predominance of semidiurnal or diurnal components. Tidal current speeds range from a few centimeters to 4 m/s. Far from the coast, current speeds are low - 5–10 cm/s. In straits, bays and off the coast, their speeds increase significantly. For example, in the Kuril Straits, current speeds reach 2–4 m/s.

In general, tidal level fluctuations in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk are very significant and have a significant impact on its hydrological regime, especially in the coastal zone.
In addition to tidal fluctuations, surge level fluctuations are also well developed here. They occur mainly when deep cyclones pass over the sea. Surge levels reach 1.5–2 m. The largest surges are observed on the coast of Kamchatka and in Terpeniya Bay.

The considerable size and great depths of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, frequent and strong winds above it determine the development of large waves here. The sea is especially rough in the fall, and in some areas in the winter. These seasons account for 55–70% of storm waves, including those with wave heights of 4–6 m, and the highest wave heights reach 10–11 m. The most turbulent are the southern and southeastern regions of the sea, where the average frequency of storm waves is 35 –40%, and in the northwestern part it decreases to 25–30%.

In normal years, the southern border of the relatively stable ice cover bends to the north and runs from the La Perouse Strait to Cape Lopatka.
The extreme southern part of the sea never freezes. However, thanks to the winds, significant masses of ice are carried into it from the north, often accumulating near the Kuril Islands.

Ice cover in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk lasts for 6–7 months. Floating ice covers more than 75% of the sea surface. The compact ice of the northern part of the sea poses serious obstacles to navigation even for icebreakers. The total duration of the ice period in the northern part of the sea reaches 280 days a year. Some of the ice from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk is carried into the ocean, where it almost immediately collapses and melts.

The forecast hydrocarbon resources of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk are estimated at 6.56 billion tons of oil equivalent, proven reserves are over 4 billion tons. The largest deposits are on the shelves (along the coast of Sakhalin Island, the Kamchatka Peninsula, Khabarovsk Territory and the Magadan Region). The deposits of Sakhalin Island are the most studied. Exploration work on the island's shelf began in the 70s. XX century, by the end of the 90s, seven large fields (6 oil and gas condensate and 1 gas condensate) and a small gas field in the Tatar Strait were discovered on the shelf of North-Eastern Sakhalin. Total gas reserves on the Sakhalin shelf are estimated at 3.5 trillion m3.

The flora and fauna are very diverse. The sea ranks first in the world in terms of commercial crab reserves. Salmon fish are of great value: chum salmon, pink salmon, coho salmon, chinook salmon, sockeye salmon - a source of red caviar. Intensive fishing is carried out for herring, pollock, flounder, cod, navaga, capelin, etc. The sea is inhabited by whales, seals, sea lions, and fur seals. Fishing for mollusks and sea urchins is becoming increasingly interesting. Various algae are ubiquitous in the littoral zone.
Due to the poor development of the surrounding territories, maritime transport has become of primary importance. Important sea routes lead to Korsakov on Sakhalin Island, Magadan, Okhotsk and other settlements.

The areas of Tauya Bay in the northern part of the sea and the shelf areas of Sakhalin Island are subject to the greatest anthropogenic load. About 23 tons of petroleum products enter the northern part of the sea annually, with 70–80% coming from river runoff. Pollutants enter Tauyskaya Bay from coastal industrial and municipal facilities, and Magadan wastewater enters the coastal zone practically without treatment.

The shelf zone of Sakhalin Island is polluted by coal, oil and gas production enterprises, pulp and paper mills, fishing and processing vessels and enterprises, and wastewater from municipal facilities. The annual supply of petroleum products to the southwestern part of the sea is estimated at approximately 1.1 thousand tons, with 75–85% from river runoff.

Petrocarbons enter the Sakhalin Bay mainly with the runoff of the Amur River, so their maximum concentrations are usually observed in the central and western parts of the bay along the axis of the incoming Amur waters.

The eastern part of the sea - the shelf of the Kamchatka Peninsula - is polluted by river runoff, with which the bulk of petroleum carbons enter the marine environment. Due to the reduction in work at fish canning enterprises on the peninsula since 1991, there has been a decrease in the volume of wastewater discharged into the coastal zone of the sea.

The northern part of the sea - Shelikhov Bay, Tauyskaya and Penzhinskaya bays - is the most polluted area of ​​the sea with the average content of petroleum carbons in water 1–5 times higher than the permissible concentration limit. This is determined not only by the anthropogenic load on the water area, but also by low average annual water temperatures and, consequently, the low ability of the ecosystem to self-purify. The highest level of pollution in the northern part of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk was noted in the period from 1989 to 1991.

The southern part of the sea - the La Perouse Strait and Aniva Bay - are subject to intense oil pollution in the spring and summer by commercial and fishing fleets. On average, the content of petroleum carbons in the La Perouse Strait does not exceed the permissible concentration limit. Aniva Bay is slightly more polluted. The highest level of pollution in this area was observed near the port of Korsakov, once again confirming that the port is a source of intense pollution of the marine environment.

Pollution of the coastal zone of the sea along the north-eastern part of Sakhalin Island is mainly associated with the exploration and production of oil and gas on the shelf of the island and until the end of the 80s of the last century did not exceed the maximum permissible concentration.

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