Gizhigin Bay (russian: Гижигинская губа, ''Gizhiginskaya Guba'') is a wide bay northwest of

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and wes ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. It is the northwestern arm of

Shelikhov Bay Shelikhov Gulf (russian: залив Шелихова) is a large gulf off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia. The gulf is named after Russian explorer Grigory Shelikhov. It is located in the northeastern corner of the Sea of Okhotsk and ...

in the northeast corner of the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...

. The settlements of

Evensk Evensk (russian: Эвенск) is an urban-type settlement in the Severo-Evensky District, Magadan Oblast, Russia. , it has a population of 1567. Geography The village is located by the seashore in Gizhigin Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk. Climate E ...

and Gizhiga are located at the head of the bay.

Geography and climate

Gizhigin Bay is entered between Cape Aregichinsky (60°30' N, 155°27' E) and Cape Taygonos (60°34' N, 160°11' E). The Taygonos Peninsula separates it from

Penzhina Bay Penzhina Bay (russian: Пе́нжинская губа́, ''Penzhinskaya guba'') is a long and narrow bay off the northwestern coast of Kamchatka, Russia. Geography Penzhina Bay is the upper right arm of Shelikhov Bay in the northeastern corner o ...

to the east. It is about 260 km (about 160 mi) west to east by 148 km (about 92 mi) north to south and has a maximum depth of 88 m (about 289 ft). The coast is steep and rocky and there are no completely safe anchorages within the bay. long river Gizhiga flows into the head of the bay. Spring

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravity, gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide t ...

s rise 6.7 m (22 ft) at the entrance of the bay and 7.9 m (26 ft) at its head, while neaps rise 2.7 to 3.3 m (9 to 11 ft). The flood current sets to the north, while the ebb flows to the south. During spring tides these currents may reach up to 2.5

knots A knot is a fastening in rope or interwoven lines. Knot may also refer to: Places * Knot, Nancowry, a village in India Archaeology * Knot of Isis (tyet), symbol of welfare/life. * Minoan snake goddess figurines#Sacral knot Arts, entertainme ...

near Cape Taygonos. During the season of navigation the southeast part of the bay experiences dense

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

s, with May and June being the foggiest months; in August, however, fog is rare. South winds are prevalent in the summer, while north winds are frequent in the fall and the first part of winter. Storms are common from the second half of September to November. In the winter, northwest winds prevail, which are interrupted by

blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling b ...

s from the northeast. Gentle winds and calms occur in April and May.National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (2014). ''Sailing Directions (Enroute): East Coast of Russia''. U.S. Government, Springfield, Virginia.

History

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

whaleship A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

s hunted

bowhead The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus'') is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and the only living representative of the genus ''Balaena''. They are the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, an ...

and

gray whale The gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus''), also known as the grey whale,Britannica Micro.: v. IV, p. 693. gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, Korean gray whale, or California gray whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and bree ...

s in the bay from the 1860s to 1900.Allen, J. A. (1903). "Report of the mammals collected in northeastern Siberia by the Jesup North Pacific expedition with itinerary and field notes, by N. G. Buxton". ''Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History'', Vol. XIX, pp. 101-184. Some traded with the

natives Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Fauna

Pacific herring The Pacific herring (''Clupea pallasii'') is a species of the herring family associated with the Pacific Ocean environment of North America and northeast Asia. It is a silvery fish with unspined fins and a deeply forked caudal fin. The distribut ...

are commonGorbatenko, K.M., Lazhentsev, A.E., and S.V. Loboda. (2004)
"Distribution, feeding, and some physiological parameters of the Pacific herring from the Gizhigin and Okhotsk populations in the north part of the Sea of Okhotsk in the spring season"
''Russian Journal of Marine Biology'', Vol. 30, Issue 5, pp. 298-305. and in the spring and summer there are a number of large colonies of

common murre The common murre or common guillemot (''Uria aalge'') is a large auk. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. It spends most of its time at sea, only coming to land to ...

in the bay.Kondratyev, A. Y., Litvinenko, N. M., Shibaev, Y. V., Vyatkin, P. S., & Kondratyeva, L. F. (2000)
"The breeding seabirds of the Russian Far East"
''Seabirds of the Russian Far East'', 37-81. In the spring and summer

beluga whale The beluga whale () (''Delphinapterus leucas'') is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus ''Delphinapterus''. It is also known as the whi ...

s aggregate in the bays and

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

at the head of the bay to feed on spawning herring,

smelt Smelt may refer to: * Smelting, chemical process * The common name of various fish: ** Smelt (fish), a family of small fish, Osmeridae ** Australian smelt in the family Retropinnidae and species ''Retropinna semoni'' ** Big-scale sand smelt ''At ...

, and

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family (biology), family Salmonidae, which are native to tributary, tributaries of the ...

.Solovyev, B. A., Shpak, O. V., Glazov, D. M., Rozhnov, V. V., & D. M. Kuznetsova. (2015). "Summer distribution of beluga whales (''Delphinapterus leucas'') in the Sea of Okhotsk". ''Russian J. Theriol.'' 14 (2): 201-215. In the spring bowhead whales can also be seen in the bay.Moore, S. E., and R. R. Reeves (1993). "Distribution and Movement". In Burns, J. J.; Montague, J. J.; and Cowles, C. J. ''The Bowhead Whale''. Special Publication No. 2: The Society for Marine Mammalogy.

References

Location
{{- Bays of the Sea of Okhotsk Bays of Magadan Oblast