Strait of Tartary - March 4th, 2009
Ice is visible floating on the surface of the Sea of Okhotsk, along the eastern shore of Russia’s Sakhalin island, and the Gulf of Patience, the island’s southeastern coast.
The ice has a rippled or swirled appearance because it takes on the shape of eddy-currents moving beneath it.
Some ice can also be seen on the western side of Sakhalin, in the Strait of Tartary. However, much of this appears to have melted since the last time the area was observed (click here for article).
La Pérouse Strait, the body of water dividing the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō (bottom right), is also ice-free, as is mainland Russia (left).
