“The Bering Sea is remarkably in tact and remarkably threatened.”  -- Carter Roberts, President and CEO of the World Wildlife Federation

 The Bering Sea is located between Alaska and the Asian section of Russia.  Alaska is to its east and Russia is to its west.  To the south is a chain of islands called the Aleutian Islands.  South of the Aleutians, lies the Pacific Ocean.  The Bering Sea’s northern boundary is a tiny section of water between the United States and Russia called the Bering Strait.  North of that, the Artic Ocean begins.   What an amazing place.  450 types of fish live in its waters.  200 kinds of birds depend on it.  25 species of marine mammals, such as whales, sea-lions and seals can be found there.  On its shores there are polar bear, reindeer, muskoxen, and other animals of the artic.  Some animals that live there are endangered, including some types of whales, sea lions, seals and the polar bear.  Half the seafood caught in the US comes from the Bering Sea.

 The area is famous for another reason as well.  During the last ice age, New York was frozen under a huge ice sheet, but the Bering Sea was not!  At that time, the winds blew warmer, dryer air into the Bering Sea area than they did into most of the rest of North America.  In fact, sea levels were lower in those days because so much water was trapped in ice and most of the Bering Sea area was dry land.  People from Asia used this land bridge to cross into North America on foot.  Those people spread out across North and South America and became the Native Americans we know today.

 Today this area is known for its natural beauty, for little, if any darkness in the summer and little sunlight light in winter.  It is known for incredible wildlife and a clean environment.  However, the environment there has been effected by our changing world.  Pollution has made its mark, even this far north.  Our warming climate has already changed the area a lot and many species of fish are effected by something called overfishing.  This happens when humans  take too many fish out of an area and the entire ecosystem can begin to suffer.  Do you want to explore more?  Take a look at the links below.

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