Ulban Bay ( Russian: ''Ul'bansky Zaliv'') is a bay in the northwestern

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

, just south of the Shantar Islands. It is a southern branch of Academy Bay to the north. The Syran and Ulban rivers flow into its head.

Geography

Ulban Bay is entered between Cape Ukurunru to the west and Cape Tukurgu to the east, which are separated by 43.4 km (about 27 mi). The bay itself is nearly deep in a southwesterly direction.

Ice Ice is water that is frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 ° C, 32 ° F, or 273.15 K. It occurs naturally on Earth, on other planets, in Oort cloud objects, and as interstellar ice. As a naturally oc ...

usually leaves Ulban Bay by mid- or late June, but in some years may remain until August. The bay has no safe anchorage and is exposed to northeast winds.

Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

s are semidiurnal. Springs rise in the northern part of the bay and in the southern part, while neaps rise about . Tidal currents vary from one to two knots. The flood current generally sets to the southwest, while the ebb flows in the opposite direction.United States. (1918). ''Asiatic Pilot, Volume 1: East coast of Siberia, Sakhalin Island and Chosen''. Washington: Hydrographic Office.National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (2014). ''Sailing Directions (Enroute): East Coast of Russia''. U.S. Government, Springfield, Virginia.

History

Between 1854 and 1885, American whaleships frequented the bay hunting

bowhead whale The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus''), sometimes called the Greenland right whale, Arctic whale, and polar whale, is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and is the only living representative of the genus '' Balaena' ...

s. They called it Mercury or Dimon's Bay, after the ship ''Mercury'' (340 tons), of

New Bedford New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...

, which visited the area during her voyage of 1852–1855, and Francis L. Dimon, her master at the time. They also anchored at the head of the bay to obtain

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

and water. On 9 July 1855, the ship ''Washington'' (340 tons), of Sag Harbor, was damaged by ice and run ashore, being sold at auction for $400 — the wreck was still visible in October.''Mary Frazier'', of New Bedford, July 9, Oct. 19-21, 1855, NWC. Russian

schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

s and boat crews from Mamga also cruised for bowheads in the bay from 1865 to 1871.Lindholm, O. V., Haes, T. A., & Tyrtoff, D. N. (2008). ''Beyond the frontiers of imperial Russia: From the memoirs of Otto W. Lindholm''. Javea, Spain: A. de Haes OWL Publishing.

Wildlife

In the summer beluga whales aggregate in the mouths of the Syran and Ulban rivers at the head of Ulban Bay,Solovyev, B. A., Shpak, O. V., Glazov, D. M., Rozhnov, V. V., & D. M. Kuznetsova. (2015). "Summer distribution of beluga whales (''Delphinapterus leucas'') in the Sea of Okhotsk". ''Russian J. Theriol.'' 14 (2): 201-215. while bowhead whales are also common in the bay during that time of year.Shpak, O. V., Meschersky, I. G., Chichkina, A. N., Kuznetsova, D. M., Paramonov, A. Y., & V. V. Rozhnov. (2014). "New data on the Okhotsk Sea bowhead whales". ''Paper presented to the Scientific Committee of IWC 65''. 5 pp. In July 2011, an endangered

North Pacific right whale The North Pacific right whale (''Eubalaena japonica'') is a very large, thickset baleen whale species that is extremely rare and endangered. The Northeast Pacific population, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, may ...

was photographed in the bay – which is considered a vagrant to the region.Ovsyanikova, E., Fedutin, I., Belonovich, O., Burdin, A., Burkanov, V., Dolgova, E., Filatova, O., Fomin, S., Hoyt, E., Mamaev, E., Richard, G., Savenko, O., Sekiguchi, K., Shpak, O., Sidorenko, M. and Titova, O. (2015). "Opportunistic sightings of the endangered North Pacific right whales (''Eubalaena japonica'') in Russian waters in 2003–2014". ''Mar. Mam. Sci.'' 31: 1559–1567.

Wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

s use the southern part of the bay as a stopover during their summer

migration Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

. The most abundant species are Terek sandpiper, Great knot, and wood sandpiper.Pronkevich, V. V. (1998). "Migration of waders in the Khabarovsk region of the Far East". ''International Wader Studies'' 10: 425-430.

References

{{reflist, 30em Bays of the Sea of Okhotsk Bays of Khabarovsk Krai Shipwrecks in the Sea of Okhotsk