Chukchi Sea

The Chukchi Sea, sometimes called the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea, or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a part of the Arctic Ocean. It is located near the top of the world and is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, near Wrangel Island. On the east, it is bounded by Point Barrow in Alaska, and beyond that lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southern edge and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

The main port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia. The International Date Line passes through the Chukchi Sea, moving eastward to avoid Wrangel Island and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland. This sea is an important part of the Arctic and plays a role in the environment and lives of people living nearby.

Etymology

In 1928, a Norwegian explorer named Harald Sverdrup found that the sea between Point Barrow and Wrangel Island was different from another nearby sea. Because of this, people decided to give this new sea a name based on the people who lived on the Chukotka Peninsula. The name was officially approved in 1935.

Geography

The Chukchi Sea is a part of the Arctic Ocean, covering about 595,000 square kilometres. It can only be sailed through for about four months each year because of the ice. The sea floor has a long area called the Hope Basin, and much of the sea is less than 50 meters deep.

There are not many islands in the Chukchi Sea. Wrangel Island is at the northwest edge, and a few small islands lie along the coasts of Siberia and Alaska. The sea is named after the Chukchi people who live along its shores. They have traditionally fished, hunted whales, and caught walrus in these cold waters.

The sea stretches from Cape Billings and other places along the Siberian coast to rivers such as the Kivalina and Kobuk in Alaska.

The International Hydrographic Organization says the Chukchi Sea’s borders are set by certain points from Wrangel Island to Point Barrow in Alaska, and down to the Arctic Circle. Many people consider the southern edge to be the narrowest part of the Bering Strait.

The area of the sea known as the Chukchi Sea Shelf is part of both the United States and Russia. The Chukchi Corridor, a narrow path within this shelf, is used by many large sea animals, including bowhead whales, beluga whales, Pacific walrus, and bearded seals, as they move through the area.

History

In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov sailed from the Kolyma River in the Arctic to the Anadyr River in the Pacific, but his route was not useful for many years. Later, Vitus Bering and James Cook also entered the sea from the Pacific.

In 1878, during an important trip led by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, a ship named Vega got stuck in thick ice in the Chukchi Sea. The next year, after being freed, it passed through the Bering Strait to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1913, a ship called Karluk was abandoned and drifted in the ice of the Chukchi Sea. It eventually sank, but the people on board reached safety after a long journey.

In 1933, another ship named Chelyuskin tried to sail through the area but got stuck in ice. It sank in 1934, but all the people were saved by a special rescue mission.

In 2010, Russian scientists set up a special research station in the Chukchi Sea to study the Arctic and support Russia's claims to the area.

Fauna

The Chukchi Sea is home to polar bears that live on the pack ice. These polar bears are one of the five distinct groups of polar bears found in Eurasia.

Phytoplankton

See also: The blob (Chukchi Sea algae)

In 2012, scientists found the biggest group of tiny plants called phytoplankton growing in the Chukchi Sea. This was surprising because people used to think these plants could only grow after the ice melted. But, they found some of these plants even under thick ice.

Scientists also found special resting spots of a type of tiny plant called Alexandrium catenella in parts of the Chukchi Sea. If conditions are right, these spots can wake up and create harmful groups of plants that can make shellfish dangerous to eat. These resting spots cover a very large area and are some of the biggest found anywhere in the world.

Oil and gas resources

The Chukchi shelf may have up to 30 billion barrels of oil and gas. In 2008, companies paid a lot of money to explore there, but some people worried about the environment. In 2015, Shell Oil got permission to drill, but later stopped because it was too expensive and oil prices dropped. Shell said it might come back but kept most of its leases.