La Pérouse Strait (), or , is a strait dividing the southern part of the

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese island of Hokkaidō, and connecting the

Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan is the marginal sea between the Japanese archipelago, Sakhalin, the Korean Peninsula, and the mainland of the Russian Far East. The Japanese archipelago separates the sea from the Pacific Ocean. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it ...

on the west with the Sea of Okhotsk on the east. The strait is wide and deep. The narrowest part of the strait is in the west between Cape Krillion in Sakhalin and Cape Sōya in Hokkaidō, which is also the shallowest at only deep. A small rocky island, appropriately named Kamen Opasnosti (Russian for "Rock of Danger") is located in the Russian waters in the northeastern part of the strait, southeast of Cape Krillion. Another small island, Bentenjima, lies near the Japanese shore of the strait. The strait is named after

Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse Commodore (rank), Commodore Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (; 23 August 1741 – ) was a French Navy officer and explorer. Having enlisted in the Navy at the age of 15, he had a successful career and in 1785 was appointed to lea ...

, a French naval officer who explored it in 1787 as part of a round-the-world voyage. Japan's territorial waters extend to three nautical miles into La Pérouse Strait instead of the usual twelve, reportedly to allow nuclear-armed

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

warships and submarines to transit the strait without violating Japan's prohibition against nuclear weapons in its territory.

History

Between 1848 and 1892, American whaleships passed through the strait in the spring and summer as they made their way from the

right whale Right whales are three species of large baleen whales of the genus ''Eubalaena'': the North Atlantic right whale (''E. glacialis''), the North Pacific right whale (''E. japonica'') and the southern right whale (''E. australis''). They are class ...

grounds in the Sea of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk to hunt right and

bowhead whale The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus''), sometimes called the Greenland right whale, Arctic whale, and polar whale, is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and is the only living representative of the genus '' Balaena' ...

s. The ship ''David Paddack'' (352 tons), Captain Swain, of

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

, was bound home with a full cargo when it wrecked in the strait in 1848. The legendary submarine '' USS Wahoo'', skippered by Dudley W. "Mush" Morton, was sunk in the strait on her seventh war patrol in October 1943. The submarine's hull was found and identified as ''Wahoo'' on Oct. 31, 2006.

Proposed rail crossing

The Sakhalin–Hokkaido Tunnel has been proposed to connect Japan and Russia under the Strait, further connecting to the Trans-Siberian Railroad. A bridge has also been proposed.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:La Perouse Strait Straits of the Pacific Ocean International straits Straits of Japan Straits of Sakhalin Oblast Landforms of Hokkaido Pacific Coast of Russia Japan–Russia border Japan–Soviet Union relations