THE BERING SEA 



821 



eastern half and creating conditions allowing the penetration of boreal fauna 

 through the Strait. At times, especially in winter, cold waters can enter the 

 Bering Sea through the western side of the Strait and move along the Chukotsk 

 coast. Branches of a warm current, skirting St Lawrence Island, penetrate the 

 Bay of Anadyr from the south, somewhat warming its eastern part. 



The anticyclonic movement of water in Anadyr Bay helps as a result of 

 the winter fall of temperature to form the so-called Anadyr cold patch. A 

 similar patch is formed in Olyutorsky Inlet. As a result of all these factors the 



BO' 



170' 



175' 







№'.'<■> 



J 



k\ vW "'/ 



\ 



\ 



\ 



\ 



\\ 





170' 



160' 



175* 



160* 



Fig. 412. Surface circulation of waters of Bering Sea (Dobrovolsky and Arsenev, 



1959). 



western side of the Sea is cooled considerably, so that in winter thick ice is at 

 times formed there. 



Strong currents of cold western Bering Sea waters follow into the Pacific 

 Ocean through the Kamchatka Strait, forming the so-called Oyashio current. 

 Certain cold-water plankton organisms serve as good indicators of this cold 

 current, one of them being Calanus finmarchicus (Fig. 413). 



The actual circulation of water masses in the western part of the Bering Sea 

 is probably much more complex than in the diagram given. The Bering Sea, 

 like the Sea of Okhotsk, is characterized, especially in its western and northern 

 parts, by the severity of conditions on the surface. Even in summer the surface 

 waters down to 30 or 40 m are never warmer than 9° to 10°. 



Below the surface layers, especially on the western side of the Sea, there 



