Bowhead whales swimming in Lingolm strait by Vladislav Raevskii

Lindholm Strait (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ''Proliv Lindgol'ma'') is a strait in the northwestern

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 ...

. It separates Malyy Shantar and Belichiy Islands to the north from the Tugur Peninsula to the south. At its narrowest it is only 3.2 km (2 mi) wide.

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 are semidiurnal. Springs rise 4.9 m (16 ft), while neaps rise 3.6 m (11.8 ft). The flood current sets west, while the stronger ebb current flows in the opposite direction. The former creates large

eddies In fluid dynamics, an eddy is the swirling of a fluid and the reverse current created when the fluid is in a turbulent flow regime. The moving fluid creates a space devoid of downstream-flowing fluid on the downstream side of the object. Fluid beh ...

and

whirlpool A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...

s. Tidal currents vary from 3.5 to 6 knots.National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (2014). ''Sailing Directions (Enroute): East Coast of Russia''. U.S. Government, Springfield, Virginia. In the summer

bowhead whale 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, ...

s can be seen in the strait.Shpak, O. V., Meschersky, I. G., Chichkina, A. N., Kuznetsova, D. M., Paramonov, A. Y., & V. V. Rozhnov. (2014). "New data on the Okhotsk Sea bowhead whales". ''Paper presented to the Scientific Committee of IWC 65''. 5 pp.

History

The strait was frequented by

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 hunting bowhead whales between 1855 and 1889. They called it Shantar Gut or simply The Gut. They hunted whales in the strait or passed through it on favorable tides as they traveled back and forth between the Tugur and

Ulban Bay Ulban Bay (Russian: ''Ul'bansky Zaliv'') is a bay in the northwestern Sea of Okhotsk, just south of the Shantar Islands. It is a southern branch of Academy Bay to the north. The Syran and Ulban rivers flow into its head. Geography Ulban Bay i ...

s.''Josephine'', of New Bedford, Aug. 2, Aug. 6, 1865, KWM; ''Sea Breeze'', of New Bedford, Sept. 6, Sep. 8, 1866, Old Dartmouth Historical Society.

References

Straits of Russia Bodies of water of the Sea of Okhotsk Bodies of water of Khabarovsk Krai {{KhabarovskKrai-geo-stub