Sakhalin Gulf (russian: Сахалинский залив) is a gulf in the Sea of Okhotsk between continental

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-eig ...

(north of the

Amur The Amur (russian: река́ Аму́р, ), or Heilong Jiang (, "Black Dragon River", ), is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China ( Inner Manchuria). The Amur proper is long, ...

's mouth) and the Schmidt Peninsula, at the northern tip of Sakhalin Island. The width of the gulf reaches up to 160 km (99 mi). It is covered with ice from mid-November until late April, but north winds can leave the bay blocked with ice until July.United States. (1918). ''Asiatic Pilot, Volume 1: East coast of Siberia, Sakhalin Island and Chosen''. Washington: Hydrographic Office. The port of Moskalvo (Москальво) is located on the eastern shore of the Sakhalin Gulf, close to Ush Island.

History

Sakhalin Gulf was frequented by American and

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 targeting bowhead whales between 1848 and 1874.''Storfursten Constantin'', of Helsinki, June 1860. In Lindholm, O. V., Haes, T. A., & Tyrtoff, D. N. (2008). ''Beyond the frontiers of imperial Russia: From the memoirs of Otto W. Lindholm''. Javea, Spain: A. de Haes OWL Publishing. They also 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 ...

for

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

. On 6–7 September 1854, the ship ''City'' (351 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 pe ...

, grounded and wrecked on the western side of the gulf. Most of her crew made it to Sakhalin Island, but seven men, including the first officer, perished on a raft from the wreck of the bark ''Peruvian''. They were able to reach the Russian village of Petrovsk and boarded a brig for home.''City'', of New Bedford, Sep. 6-Oct. 1, 1854, NWC.

Wildlife

In the 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 ...

s aggregate at the head of Sakhalin Gulf to feed on

spawning Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquat ...

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus ''Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Oncorhy ...

.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.

References

Location
Bodies of water of Sakhalin Oblast Bays of the Sea of Okhotsk Gulfs of Russia Gulfs of the Pacific Ocean Shipwrecks in the Sea of Okhotsk {{FarEast-Russia-geo-stub