Seas of the Western Pacific, From the Bering to the Tasman

The path begins at the top. The Bering Sea covers over 2,000,000 square kilometers between the Russian Far East and Alaska, and its cold, nutrient-rich waters make it one of the most productive fishing grounds on Earth.

Moving south along the Russian coast, the Sea of Okhotsk is enclosed by the mainland, the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. It covers about 1,583,000 square kilometers and reaches 3,372 meters at its deepest, and its northern waters freeze extensively in winter.

The Sea of Japan is enclosed by the Japanese archipelago, the Korean Peninsula and the Russian mainland. It covers about 1,050,000 square kilometers and reaches 4,568 meters deep, and its name is disputed, with Korea preferring East Sea.

The Yellow Sea is named for the pale silt carried into it by the Yellow and other Chinese rivers. It is remarkably shallow, with an average depth of only 44 meters and a maximum of 152, and it stretches about 960 kilometers from north to south.

The East China Sea lies between China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and is fed by the outflow of the Yangtze River. Beyond its shallow continental shelf, the Okinawa Trough drops to 2,716 meters.

The Philippine Sea, at about 5,695,000 square kilometers, is generally reckoned the largest sea in the world. Bounded by island arcs including Japan, Taiwan and the Mariana Islands, it contains the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point in any ocean.

The South China Sea is bordered by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, and carries an estimated third of global shipping traffic. Its depth reaches 5,563 meters, and its scattered reefs and islands are the subject of overlapping sovereignty claims.

The Gulf of Thailand is a shallow inlet of the South China Sea, about 800 kilometers long with a surface area of 320,000 square kilometers and a maximum depth of only 85 meters. It is bordered by Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula, and supports fisheries and offshore natural gas development.

The Sulu Sea in the southwestern Philippines is cut off from the South China Sea and the Celebes Sea by island chains and coral reef systems. It extends about 790 kilometers from north to south and is 4,400 meters deep, and it has long served as a trade route linking the Philippines, Borneo and the wider Malay world.

In contrast to the deep Sulu Sea, the Java Sea is enclosed by Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi and sits entirely on the Sunda continental shelf, with a maximum depth of just 67 meters. It measures about 1,600 kilometers east to west by 380 kilometers north to south.

The Banda Sea is a deep sea within the Indonesian archipelago, bounded by the Banda Islands and the Maluku Islands, and its depth reaches 7,351 meters. It is about 1,000 kilometers east to west and part of the Coral Triangle region of exceptional marine biodiversity.

The Coral Sea lies off the northeastern coast of Australia and takes in the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef. It covers about 4,791,000 square kilometers, runs 2,000 kilometers down the Australian coast, and was the site of the naval Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942.

The path ends at the Tasman Sea, which separates Australia from New Zealand and is named for the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. It runs about 2,800 kilometers from north to south and reaches 5,943 meters deep.