| Ecosystem |
Oyashio Current |
| Type |
Sea/Bay/Gulf |
| Salinity |
saltwater |
| Other Names |
|
| Location |
|
LME SAU No 51. Pacifc side of Kuril Islands. LME2002, LME2006, SAU 2008. |
51° N 43° N - 149° E 155° E |
|
| Location Map |
Oyashio_Current.png |
| Size Ref |
|
River Length |
|
Area |
534360 km2 |
Drainage Area |
|
|
| Depth |
|
Average Depth |
|
Max Depth |
|
Ref |
|
|
| Temperature |
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| Description |
The Oyashio region is a part of the Western Subarcitc Domain, and extends broadly north of about 40° N in the Western North Pacific Ocean and the Western Bering Sea (Dodimean et al., 1963). The Oyashio Current (or Kurile Current) mainly originates in the Sea of Okhotsk, and diverges south of the southern Kurile Islands. A coastal branch of this cold Current flows southward along Northern Japan, meets the warmer Kuroshio Current, and intrudes into Volcano Bay off Sanriku (the northern part of Honshuu) near 142° E. The Oyashio Current is strongest in spring, and the presence of cold current water in Volcano Bay continues till June (Ohtani et al, 1971). This bowl-shaped bay is about 2,300 km2 with a mean depth of 59 m. Surface temperature of Oyashio water varies seasonally from about 0°C in early spring to 20°C in the summer. A seasonal thermocline develops at a depth shallower than 50 m. The temperature-salinity relation is almost uniform at 100 m depth off the south of Hokkaido, with 5°C the highest temperature at 33.6 in salinity (Hata, 1969). Dissolved oxygen is more than 4 mil/l–1 at the 600 m zone in contrast with 1 mil/l–1 at the 100 m zone in the water of the western North Pacific (http://www.na.nmfs.gov/lme/text/lme51.htm). |
| Comments on faunal list |
Area from SAU (November 2015). |
| URL 1 |
http://www.seaaroundus.org/lme/51.aspx |
| URL 2 |
|
| Ecosystem Checklist Link |
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| Total |
|
Species |
Families |
Species |
Families |
Reference |
|
59 |
38 |
|
|
|
|
