GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EASTERN SEAS 677 



The flora and fauna, rich in variety and quantity, contain a number of 

 species which are, or could be, of great commercial value — some 200 of the 

 total of 800 species among fish alone. Oysters and scallops could first be added 

 to the list of organisms exploited commercially ; and then the huge variety of 

 molluscs and crustaceans (primarily the Kamchatka crab), the large stock of 

 marine algae (Laminaria and Alaria) and marine flowering plants (Zostera 

 and Phyllospadix). Whales, fur-seals, walruses, sea lions, sea otters and other 

 marine mammals could also be added to this list of the abundant and still 

 almost untapped resources. 



The exceptional abundance of life in some regions of the northwestern part 

 of the Pacific is striking. The meeting zone of the Oyashio and Kuroshio 

 waters is the richest among them ; very many fish are attracted by the abund- 

 ance of plankton, the fish in their turn being followed by large shoals of 

 squids, whales and flocks of birds. 



II. HISTORY OF EXPLORATION 



Three hundred years ago (1648) the Cossack Semen Dezhnev rounded the 

 Chukotsk Peninsula and sailed through the straits (which should really have 

 been called after him), entering the Pacific Ocean from the north. The Rus- 

 sians, who at that time were settled on the far-distant northeastern border of 

 Asia hunting sea beasts, must have had some knowledge of sea fish and 

 mammals and of the geography of the regions in which they swam. V. Bering's 

 expedition (1725 to 1743), one of the greatest geographical undertakings in the 

 history of ocean exploration, marked the beginning of a more systematic 

 study of the flora and fauna of the Far Eastern Seas. Numerous documents 

 form the legacy of this expedition. The naturalists S. Steller and S. Krashenin- 

 nikov, who took part in the expedition, gave the first, very valuable obser- 

 vations on the flora and fauna of the Far Eastern Seas and their shores. 



At the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries 

 the ships of numerous Russian expeditions ploughed the northern part of the 

 Pacific Ocean. Descriptions of the coastline of northern Asia and America 

 were made by these expeditions. Biologists often participated. The expeditions 

 of I. Billings and G. Sarychev (1785 to 1793), I. Kruzenshtern and Yu. 

 Lisyansky (1803 to 1806), O. Kotzebu (1815 to 1818) and others are parti- 

 cularly well known. 



The second period of the exploration of the Far Eastern Seas and the begin- 

 ning of the systematic study of their flora and fauna are linked with the names 

 of the members or collaborators of the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences — 

 I. Voznesensky, A. Middendorf, L. Shrenk, N. Grebnitzky and others. The 

 voyage of Admiral S. O. Makarov (1886 to 1889) in the corvette Vityaz was 

 of exceptional importance in the history of the exploration of the Pacific. 



At the beginning of this century several large expeditions were sent out to 

 investigate the commercial wealth of the Far Eastern Seas. The most signi- 

 ficant among them were the researches of V. Brazhnikov (1899 to 1904), 

 P. Schmidt (1900 to 1901) and V. Soldatov (1907 to 1913). 



The last and most fruitful period in the exploration of the Far Eastern 

 Seas, of their environment, flora and fauna, including the deep-water fauna, 



