The Bering Sea is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean.
It comprises a deep water basin, which then rises through a narrow slope into the shallower
water above the continental shelves.
The Bering Sea is separated from the Gulf of Alaska by the Alaska Peninsula.
It covers over 2,000,000 square kilometres bordered on the east and northeast by Alaska,
on the west by Russia's Far East and Kamchatka Peninsula, on the south by the Alaska Peninsula
and the Aleutian Islands and on the far north by the Bering Strait, which connects the Bering
Sea to the Arctic Ocean's Chukchi Sea.
Bristol Bay is the portion of the Bering Sea which separates the Alaska Peninsula from
mainland Alaska.
The Bering Sea is named for Vitus Bering, a Danish navigator in Russian service, who
in 1728 was the first European to systematically explore it, sailing from the Pacific Ocean
northward to the Arctic Ocean.
The Bering Sea ecosystem includes resources within the jurisdiction of the United States
and Russia, as well as international waters in the middle of the sea.
The interaction between currents, sea ice, and weather makes for a vigorous and productive
ecosystem.
History Most scientists believe that during the most
recent ice age, sea level was low enough to allow humans and other animals to migrate
on foot from Asia to North America across what is now the Bering Strait.
This is commonly referred to as the "Bering land bridge" and is believed by some—though
not all— to be the first point of entry of humans into the Americas.
There is a small portion of the Kula Plate in the Bering Sea.
The Kula Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that used to subduct under Alaska during the
Triassic period.
Geography
Extent The International Hydrographic Organization
defines the limits of the Bering Sea as follows:
On the North.
The Southern limit of the Chuckchi Sea [sic] [The Arctic Circle between Siberia and Alaska].
On the South.
A line running from Kabuch Point in the Alaskan Peninsula, through the Aleutian Islands to
the South extremes of the Komandorski Islands and on to Cape Kamchatka in such a way that
all the narrow waters between Alaska and Kamchatka are included in the Bering Sea.
Islands Islands of the Bering Sea include:
Pribilof Islands Komandorski Islands, including Bering Island
St. Lawrence Island Diomede Islands
King Island St. Matthew Island
Karaginsky Island Nunivak Island
Sledge Island Hagemeister Island
Regions Regions of the Bering Sea include:
Bering Strait Bristol Bay
Gulf of Anadyr Norton Sound
The Bering Sea contains 16 submarine canyons including the largest submarine canyon in
the world, Zhemchug Canyon.
Ecosystem The Bering Sea shelf break is the dominant
driver of primary productivity in the Bering Sea.
This zone, where the shallower continental shelf drops off into the North Aleutians Basin
is also known as the “Greenbelt”.
Nutrient upwelling from the cold waters of the Aleutian basin flowing up the slope and
mixing with shallower waters of the shelf provide for constant production of phytoplankton.
The second driver of productivity in the Bering Sea is seasonal sea ice that, in part, triggers
the spring phytoplankton bloom.
Seasonal melting of sea ice causes an influx of lower salinity water into the middle and
other shelf areas, causing stratification and hydrographic effects which influence productivity.
In addition to the hydrographic and productivity influence of melting sea ice, the ice itself
also provides an attachment substrate for the growth of algae as well as interstitial
ice algae.
Some evidence suggests that great changes to the Bering Sea ecosystem have already occurred.
Warm water conditions in the summer of 1997 resulted in a massive bloom of low energy
coccolithophorid phytoplankton.
A long record of carbon isotopes, which is reflective of primary production trends of
the Bering Sea, exists from historical samples of bowhead whale baleen.
Trends in carbon isotope ratios in whale baleen samples suggest that a 30-40% decline in average
seasonal primary productivity has occurred over the last 50 years.
The implication is that the carrying capacity of the Bering Sea is much lower now than it
has been in the past.
Biodiversity The sea supports many endangered whale species
including Bowhead Whale, Blue Whale, Fin Whale, Sei Whale, Humpback Whale, Sperm Whale and
the rarest in the world, the North Pacific Right Whale.
Other marine mammals include walrus, Steller Sea Lion, Northern Fur Seal, Beluga, Orca
and polar bear.
The Bering Sea is very important to the seabirds of the world.
Over 30 species of seabirds and approximately 20 million individuals breed in the Bering
Sea region.
Seabird species include Tufted Puffins, the endangered Short-tailed Albatross, Spectacled
Eider, and Red-legged Kittiwakes.
Many of these species are unique to the area, which provides highly productive foraging
habitat, particularly along the shelf edge and in other nutrient-rich upwelling regions,
such as the Pribilof, Zhemchug, and Pervenets canyons.
The Bering Sea is also home to colonies of Crested Auklets, with upwards of a million
individuals.
Two Bering Sea species, the Steller's Sea Cow and Spectacled Cormorant, are extinct
because of overexploitation by man.
In addition, a small subspecies of Canada goose, the Bering Canada goose is extinct
due to overhunting and introduction of rats to their breeding islands.
The Bering Sea supports many species of fish.
Some species of fish support large and valuable commercial fisheries.
Commercial fish species include 6 species of Pacific Salmon, Alaska Pollock, Red King
Crab, Chionoecetes Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, Yellowfin Sole, Pacific ocean perch and sablefish.
Fish biodiversity is high, and at least 419 species of fish have been reported from the
Bering Sea.
Fisheries The Bering Sea is world renowned for its enormously
productive and profitable fisheries, such as King Crab, opilio and tanner crabs, Bristol
Bay salmon, pollock and other groundfish.
These fisheries rely on the productivity of the Bering Sea via a complicated and little
understood food web.
The continued existence of these fisheries requires an intact, healthy, and productive
ecosystem.
Commercial fishing is big business in the Bering Sea, which is relied upon by the largest
seafood companies in the world to produce fish and shellfish.
On the U.S. side, commercial fisheries catch approximately $1 billion worth of seafood
annually, while Russian Bering Sea fisheries are worth approximately $600 million annually.
The Bering Sea also serves as the central location of the Alaskan king crab and Opilio
crab seasons, which are chronicled on the Discovery Channel television program Deadliest
Catch.
Landings from Alaskan waters represents half the U.S. catch of fish and shellfish.
Change Because of the changes going on in the Arctic,
future evolution of the Bering Sea climate/ecosystem is uncertain.
Between 1979 and 2012 the region experienced small growth in sea ice extent, standing in
stark contrast to the substantial loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean to the
north See also
Bering Sea Arbitration List of seas
Timeline of environmental events References
External links Bering Sea Climate and Ecosystem from NOAA
North Pacific Ocean theme page from NOAA Groundfish fisheries and harvest, 2005 from
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Video of research on Bering Sea
Nautical Chart of the Bering Sea