Chukchi Sea
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Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which is the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The main port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia. The International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea. It is moved east to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland.
The sea has an area of about 595,000 km² (230,000 mi²). It can only be travelled about four months of the year. The Chukchi Sea has very few islands compared to other seas of the Arctic. Wrangel Island is at the northwestern limit of the sea, Herald Island is near its northern limit, and a few small islands are along the Siberian and Alaskan coasts.
The sea is named after the Chukchi people. The live on its shores and on the Chukotka Peninsula. The Chukchi worked at fishing, whaling and the hunting of walrus in this cold sea.
In Siberia places along the coast are: Cape Billings, Cape Schmidt, Amguyema River, Cape Vankarem, the large Kolyuchinskaya Bay, Neskynpil'gyn Lagoon, Cape Serdtse-Kamen, Enurmino, Chegitun River, Inchoun, Uelen and Cape Dezhnev.
In Alaska, the rivers flowing into the Chukchi Sea are the Kivalina, the Kobuk, the Kokolik, the Kukpowruk, the Kukpuk, the Noatak, the Utukok, the Pitmegea, and the Wulik, among others. The most important rivers flowing in from its Siberian side are the Amguyema, Ioniveyem, and the Chegitun.
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