Penzhina Bay (russian: Пе́нжинская губа́, ''Penzhinskaya guba'') is a long and narrow bay off the northwestern coast 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 west ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

Geography

Penzhina Bay is the upper right 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 northeastern 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 ...

. It is bounded on the east by the

Kamchatka Peninsula 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 w ...

and on the west by the Taygonos Peninsula, which separates it from

Gizhigin Bay Gizhigin Bay (russian: Гижигинская губа, ''Gizhiginskaya Guba'') is a wide bay northwest of Kamchatka, Russia. It is the northwestern arm of Shelikhov Bay in the northeast corner of the Sea of Okhotsk. The settlements of Evensk and ...

. The bay is entered between Cape Taygonos (60°34' N, 160°11' E) to the west and Cape Bozhedomova (60°18' N, 161°53' E) to the east. Cape Povorotnyy lies to the east-northeast of Cape Taygonos. It is about 300 km (186 mi) long and 65 km (40 mi) wide. Near its middle, two peninsulas narrow it to 30 km (18.6 mi), forming

The Gorlo The Gorlo (Russian: Горло), the narrowest part of Penzhina Bay, separates it into two parts. Its northwestern and northeastern points are Capes Opasnyy and Mamet and its southwestern and southeastern points are Capes Yelistratova (61° 31' N, ...

. There is ice in the bay from October to May. It has the highest tides of any bay on the Pacific Ocean: 9 m (29.5 ft), 12.9 m (42.3 ft) maximum, versus 17 m (56 ft) in the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is t ...

. Its basin is very thinly populated. The river

Penzhina The Penzhina (russian: Пенжина; Koryak: Мыгыкивэем) is a river in Kamchatka Krai, Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . The name "Penzhina" originated the Chukchi word ''"Pennyn"'', meaning "place of attack". In ...

flows into the head of the bay. It is 713 km (443 mi) long and flows east, then south, then southwest to reach the bay.

History

The town of Penzhina was located on the middle Penzhina River and was visited by

George Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histo ...

in 1866. The major tributary of the Penzhina is the Aklan, Oklan or Khayakha River which flows southeast and joins the Penzhina about 50 miles from its mouth. In 1669 the Russians built the ostrog of Aklansk, which was used to subdue the local

Koryaks Koryaks () are an indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south ...

and was an important base on the route south from

Anadyrsk Anadyrsk was an important Russian ostrog (fortified settlement) in far northeastern Siberia from 1649 to 1764. It was on the Anadyr River, near the head of small-boat navigation, about 300 miles upstream, 12 miles northeast of the present Mark ...

to the

Kamchatka peninsula 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 w ...

before the sea route from

Okhotsk Okhotsk ( rus, Охотск, p=ɐˈxotsk) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Okhotsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located at the mouth of the Okhota River on the Sea of Okhotsk. Population: ...

opened up. It was attacked by the Koryaks several times and later abandoned. Between 1849 and 1900,

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 ...

whaleships hunted

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, a ...

s in the bay.Jochelson, W. (1905). "The Koryak". The Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Vol. VI. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. Leiden/New York.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. On 11 August 1867, the

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

''Stella'' (270 tons), of

New Bedford New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American p ...

, Capt. Ebenezer F. Nye, was wrecked on Krayny on the western side of the bay. Two men were killed as the barque was smashed to pieces. The rest of the crew were rescued by several nearby vessels. During a five-day period in late September 1968, the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

factory ship A factory ship, also known as a fish processing vessel, is a large ocean-going vessel with extensive on-board facilities for processing and freezing caught fish or whales. Modern factory ships are automated and enlarged versions of the earlier wh ...

''Vladivostok'' and its fleet of whale catchers illegally caught sixty-six balaenids (likely bowheads) in the bay.Ivashchenko, Y. V. & P. J. Clapham. (2012). "Soviet catches of right whales ''Eubalaena japonica'' and bowhead whales ''Balaena mysticetus'' in the North Pacific Ocean and the Okhotsk Sea". ''Endang. Species Res.'', Vol. 18: 201–217.

References

LocationPenzhin Bay
{{Authority control Bays of the Sea of Okhotsk Bays of Magadan Oblast Bays of Kamchatka Krai Shipwrecks in the Sea of Okhotsk

Geography

History

See also

References