World Wildlife Fund

Crested auklets live in the Bering Sea and Kamchatka ecoregion.
© WWF-Canon /Kevin SCHAFER

The Bering Sea is one of the world's most productive and biologically diverse marine ecosystems with some 450 species of fish, crustacean, and mollusk. A diversity of habitats across the broad continental shelf, including the Bering Sea's highly productive "Green Belt" and the deepwater basin, give this ecoregion its extraordinarily rich marine biodiversity.

The Bering Sea and Kamchatka Ecoregion plays an important part in the life cycle of some of the world's largest salmon populations, which spend their adult life in the Bering Sea before migrating up the rivers of Alaska and Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula to spawn. The sea also supports huge seabird populations, including nearly 10 million murres and auklets. 

Polar bear female with her cubs.
© WWF-Canon / Kevin SCHAFER

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More than 200 species of birds and 25 species of marine mammals inhabit or migrate through the ecoregion during the year. Among the sea's wildlife species are the endangered bowhead and northern right whales, the highly endangered Steller sea lion, the northern fur seal -- which is now considered "depleted" according to the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act -- and the polar bear, which is listed in Russia's Red Data Book of Rare and Endangered Species.

Illustrating the tremendous ecological value of this region are the Bering Sea's Pribilof Islands, a group of four islands which are often called the "Galapagos of the North." Located at the edge of the continental shelf, the Pribilofs benefit from nutrient-rich currents called upwellings that add to the richness of the waters around the islands. The Pribilofs' estimated 2.5 million birds are among the world's largest seabird colonies. The islands are one of only three places where northern fur seals breed and there is also a Steller sea lion rookery (breeding area) on St. George Island. Crab and halibut were once abundant here, too, although in recent years this has changed. Still, the Pribilof ecosystem is extremely productive and WWF is working with people around the ecoregion to help preserve this special place.