Most scientists believe that during the most recent ice age, sea level was low enough to let humans and other animals move on foot from Asia to North America across what is now the Bering Strait. This is commonly called the "Bering land bridge" and is believed by some—though not all— to be the first point of entry of humans into the Americas.
Islands of the Bering Sea include:
Regions of the Bering Sea include:
The Bering Sea has 16 submarine canyons including the largest submarine canyon in the world, Zhemchug Canyon.
The Bering Sea is home to some of the world's most interesting wildlife. This 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 about 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.
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 the introduction of rats to their breeding islands.
The Bering Sea supports many species of fish. At least 419 species of fish have been reported from the Bering Sea. Some species of fish support large and valuable commercial fisheries. Commercial fish species include six species of Pacific salmon; also Alaska pollock, red king crab, Pacific cod, Pacific halibut, yellowfin sole, Pacific ocean perch and sablefish.
Celebes Sea
The Celebes Sea is a sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines. It is bordered on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawesi, and on the west by Kalimantan in Indonesia. It is 420 miles (675 km) north-south by 520 miles (837 km) east-west. It has a total surface area of . The maximum depth is 20,300 feet (6,200 m). The sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea.
The Celebes Sea is home to a wide variety of fish and aquatic creatures. The tropical setting and warm clear waters give it about 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building corals. There is a large amount of marine life, including whales and dolphins, sea turtles, manta rays, eagle rays, barracuda, marlin and other reef and pelagic species. Tuna and yellowfin tuna are also abundant.
The Celebes Sea is known for its pirates. They prey not only on small time fishermen but also giant container ships. Nowadays, these pirates have high-tech weapons and equipment like radar and GPS navigation devices and ride on high-speed motorboats. It is the second most pirated body of water after the Gulf of Aden near Somalia.
The Celebes Sea is an important sea route for regional trade. The sea is also popular for scuba diving and luxury ocean cruising.
Flores Sea
The Flores Sea covers 93,000 square miles (240,000 square kilometres) of water in Indonesia.
The seas that border the Flores Sea are the Bali Sea (to the west), Java Sea (to the northwest), and the Banda Sea (to the east and northeast). The Indian Ocean and Savu Sea are to the south. They are separated from the Flores Sea by various islands. Islands that border this sea are the Lesser Sunda Islands and Celebes (Sulawesi).
Gulf of Alaska
The Gulf of Alaska is an arm of the Pacific Ocean. The borders are the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, where Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage are found.
The entire shoreline of the Gulf is a combination of forest, mountain, and a number of tidewater glaciers. Alaska's largest glaciers, the Malaspina Glacier and Bering Glacier go out onto the coastal plain along the Gulf of Alaska. Cook Inlet and Prince William Sound are the two largest connected bodies of water. There is also Yakutat Bay and Cross Sound. Lituya Bay is the place of the largest recorded tsunami in history.
Gulf of Thailand
The Gulf of Thailand is a shallow arm of the South China Sea.
The Gulf of Thailand is bordered by Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. The northern tip of the gulf is the Bay of Bangkok at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River. The gulf is about 320,000 km². The boundary of the gulf is defined by the line from Cape Bai Bung in southern Vietnam to the city Kota Baru on the Malaysian coast.
The Gulf of Thailand is relatively shallow. Its average depth is 45 m, and the maximum depth only 80 m. This makes water exchange slow. The strong water inflow from the rivers make the Gulf low in salinity (3.05-3.25%) and rich in sediments. The main rivers which empty into the gulf are the Chao Phraya (including its distributary Tha Chin River), Mae Klong and Bang Pakong Rivers at the Bay of Bangkok, and the Tapi River into Bandon Bay in the southwest of the gulf.
The Gulf of Thailand has many coral reefs, and several diving resorts. Due to the tropical warmth of the water, it is popular with tourists. Some of the most important tourist places in the Gulf of Thailand are the islands of Ko Samui and Ko Pha Ngan in Surat Thani province, Pattaya in Chonburi province, Cha-am in Phetchaburi Province, Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Ko Samet in Rayong Province,and Ko Chang in Trat Province
Java Sea
The Java Sea is a large shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf. It is 320,000 km². It was formed as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Java Sea is between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south; Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South China Sea.
Fishing is an important economic activity in the Java Sea. There are over 3,000 species of marine life in the area. A number of national parks are in the area such as Karimunjawa. The Thousand Islands are north of the mainland Jakarta. The area around the Java Sea is a popular tourist destination. Scuba diving lets people explore and photograph underwater caverns, wrecks, coral, sponges, and other marine life.
The Battle of the Java Sea, during February and March 1942, was one of the costliest naval battles of World War II. The naval forces of the Netherlands, Britain, Australia, and the U.S. were nearly completely destroyed trying to defend Java from Japanese attack.
Koro Sea
The Koro Sea or Sea of Koro is a sea in the Pacific Ocean. It is between Viti Levu island, Fiji to the west and the Lau Islands to the east. It is surrounded by the islands of the Fijian archipelago.
The sea is named after Koro Island.
Molucca Sea
The Molucca Sea is in the western Pacific Ocean, within the country of Indonesia. The region is rich in coral and has many diving sites.
The Molucca Sea borders the Banda Sea to the south and the Celebes Sea to the north.
The islands bordering the Molucca Sea include Halmahera to the north east, Buru and Ceram in the centre, and Sulawesi to the west. The Talaud Islands to the north are the general limit of the sea. The Molucca Sea Plate, the tectonic plate named after the sea, goes further north.
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast (including the Shantar Islands) along the west and north. The northeast corner is Shelikhov Gulf. It is named after Okhotsk, the first Russian town in the Far East.