Tatar Strait

Tatar Strait, narrow body of water, c.350 mi (560 km) long and from 5 to 80 mi (8–129 km) wide, S Russian Far East, between the island of Sakhalin and the Asian mainland. It connects the Sea of Japan, in the south, with the Sea of Okhotsk, in the north. Sovyetskaya Gavan, a fishing port, naval base, and terminus for the Baykal-Amur Mainline (BAM) is on the strait. Pipelines across the strait link Sakhalin's oil fields with mainland refineries.

---

Tatar Strait

Wide passage in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, connecting the Sea of Japan (East Sea) and the Sea of Okhotsk. Located between Sakhalin Island and Russia's Far East mainland, it is generally shallow, with depths less than 700 ft (210 m). Ice impedes its ports for half the year.

---

Tatar Strait

an arm of the Pacific between the mainland of SE Russia and Sakhalin Island, linking the Sea of Japan with the Sea of Okhotsk. Length: about 560 km (350 miles)

---

Tatar Strait 

a strait between the Asian mainland and Sakhalin Island, connecting the Sea of Japan with the Sea of Okhotsk. The strait is 633 km long and has a maximum width of 342 km in the south and 40 km in the north; at its narrowest point—Nevel’skoi Strait—it is only 7.3 km wide. The fairway has a minimum depth of 7.2 m. The northern part of the strait is called the Amur Estuary. Some geographers do not consider the Nevel’skoi Strait and Amur Estuary to be part of the Tatar Strait. The shores of the Tatar Strait are hilly in the south and flat in the north.

The average water temperature in summer is 10°–12°C. In winter the strait is icebound; in the north a solid sheet of ice covers the strait and its shores, and in the south ice floes fill the open water. The semidiurnal and mixed tides found in the south rise to 2.7 m, and the irregular diurnal tides of the Amur Estuary exceed 2 m.

Among the fish caught in the strait are herring, flounder, halibut, and navaga. Maritime shipping routes link the Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan with the mouth of the Amur River and the mainland with Sakhalin Island. The main ports on the strait are Sovetskaia Gavan’, Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinskii, Lesogorsk, and Uglegorsk.