The Bellingshausen Sea in the Pacific Ocean is entirely south of the Arctic Circle, smoothly and shallowly cutting its southern part into the coast of Antarctica, and occupies the extreme southeastern part of the largest water body. The northern border is rather arbitrary and open to the waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Short description
In the Bellingshausen Sea, the largest, among the islands of the Antarctic seas, is the land of Alexander I. The coastline is mountainous and completely covered with glaciers. The scientist, whose name it bears, Bellingshausen, opened the sea. The navigator was a Baltic German from a noble family.
The continental slope is steep and the shelf depths begin at 4-500 meters, gradually turning into a small bed of the sea with a depth of about 3200 m, the depth increases in the direction of the ocean and reaches a maximum mark of 4470 m.
An attractive feature of these places is the air, wonderful in cleanliness and freshness, and incredibly transparent and deep starry sky.
A vacation with your family is hardly appropriate in this area, but there are a decent number of travel agencies offering trips to the sea for those who want to visit such wonderful places. Traveling companies are happy to talk more about this area, and some of the most interesting information can be found in this short article.
Climatic conditions
Even the pronunciation of the words "Antarctica", "Arctic Circle", "Bellingshausen Sea", "iceberg" evokes freshness and coolness, but such is the harsh climatic reality in these latitudes. Bellingshausen is a sea that is almost completely packed with ice almost all year round, only by summer, and more precisely from February - March, its waters adjacent to the open part of the ocean are freed from the ice cover. They are rich in floating ice and icebergs, which sometimes reach gigantic proportions.
The climate is harsh. Year-round, air masses dominate the mainland Antarctica, lowering the temperature in the winter months from -12 0 over the island of Peter I to -20 0 on the south coast (extreme values -30 0 in the north and -42 0 in the south parts of the sea). The isotherm of the summer months ranges from 0 to +4 0 C in January and from -2 0 C to -6 0 C in February, which is explained by weak air exchange with the adjacent Pacific air masses. Bellingshausen is a sea whose water temperature in winter is practically below the freezing point throughout the entire water area, and only in the summer months the upper layer “warms up” to -1 degree. Water salinity is about 34 ppm.
Flora
The flora and fauna of these places is poorly represented due to harsh climatic conditions. From land-based vegetation in the northern part of the island of Peter the Great, several species of mosses and lichens inhabit stony, uncovered with ice-covered plots of land. Bellingshausen is a sea whose vegetation in the northern part consists of phytoplankton and several species of blue-green algae.
Fauna
The fauna, whose representatives live on the coast and in the adjacent waters, is somewhat richer. Of the mammals, one can find here in the summer a sea leopard, an elephant seal, a polar crabeater (seal), a fur seal, and Weddell seal. In the deep sea there are sponges and some echinoderms, several families of fish, for example, notothenia. The open sea in the northern part is rich in krill and zooplankton, which attracts whales. These “pastures” are inhabited by: saivail, humpback, finwal, the largest and most powerful representative of the animal world of our planet - the blue whale, is also found here. The feathered community is represented by petrels and skuas; penguins live on land. In the summer months, especially on the islands, quite numerous colonies of fulmar, polar terns and Vilsen's geese nest.
Who discovered the Bellingshausen Sea?
The honor of the discovery of Antarctica belongs to the famous and famous Russian navigator and researcher F.F. Bellingshausen. And before him there were numerous attempts to reach the southern mainland, which were unsuccessful. It was Bellingshausen, by order of Emperor Alexander l, together with M.P. Lazarev in the 20s of the XIX century on two ships, poorly adapted for ice campaigns, set sail. Bellingshausen was the first to reach the mainland of Antarctica. He conducted numerous studies of the coastline of the mainland, made many discoveries in the field of geography and hydrology. The scientist was able to find out where the Bellingshausen Sea is and indicate its exact coordinates. The name of the great traveler and scientist is immortalized on the geographical maps of the Earth. His name is given to the sea off the coast of Antarctica, two islands in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, a cape on Sakhalin, an ice shelf in the Antarctic. The name Bellingshausen is the first Soviet, and now Russian, research station on the coldest continent.
Leisure and science
Bellingshausen is a sea that is probably strange, but recently it has been attracting the attention of tourists more and more often. Especially the island of Petra l. Argentine and New Zealand tour operators willingly organize tours for lovers of extreme relaxation, taking people on excursions to these latitudes on ships of the Antarctic class. The fact is that for the entire time since the opening and until 2006 inclusive, only about 400 people have visited here, and over the following years the number of tourists who have been here has exceeded 2,000.
The value of research work in the Antarctic is not diminishing, especially in light of climatic problems and the general concern about global warming.