Medvyezhi Islands edit extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (using Wikipedia Reflection Script)

The Medvyezhi Islands or Bear Islands (Russian: Медвежьи острова) is an uninhabited group of islands at the western end of the Kolyma Gulf (Kolymskiy Zaliv) of the East Siberian Sea. It is located about 100 Km to the north of the mouths of the Kolyma River. The coast of Siberia is about 35 Km to the SW of the largest island, which is about 15 Km long. The islands of this island group are covered with tundra vegetation.

The sea surrounding the Medvyezhi Islands is covered with fast ice in the winter and the climate is severe. The surrounding sea is obstructed by pack ice even in the summer months. There is commercial fishing in the area of the Medvezhi Islands during the summer¹.

This island group belongs to the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic. As their name indicates, these islands are a refuge and breeding ground for polar bears.

The Medvyezhi Islands in the East Siberian Sea should not be confused with Bear Island, which is an arctic island of Norway south of Svalbard. There are also other small Russian islands called Ostrova Medvezh'i, two are located in the Kara Sea, off Dikson and off the southern tip of Novaya Zemlya respectively, and one in the Shantar Islands, Sea of Okhotsk. Besides those, there are quite a number of islets in the White Sea, in the Baltic Sea and in lakes and rivers in different parts of Russia called Ostrov Medvezh'i.

History

The first recorded European to report the existence of the Medvyezhi Islands was Russian explorer Yakov Permyakov in 1710. While sailing from the Lena to the Kolyma River, Permyakov observed the silhouette of the unknown island group in the then little explored East Siberian Sea.

In 1820-1824, during Ferdinand Wrangel's Arctic expedition to the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea, Arctic explorer Fyodor Matyushkin surveyed and mapped Chetyrekhstolbovoy Island in the Medvyezhi group.

On September 3d 1878, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld recorded that he sailed close to the Bear Islands in the steamship Vega. This was during the famous expedition that made the whole length of the Northeast passage for the first time in history.

References

• Geography
• The Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition 1910-1915
• Albert Hastings Markham. Arctic Exploration, 1895

See also

• East Siberian Sea
• Fyodor Matyushkin

v • d • e Islands of the East Siberian Sea (Russian Arctic) Anzhu Islands  • Ayon Island  • Bennett Island  • Bolshoy Fedorovskiy  • Chengkuul  • De Long Islands  • Faddeyevsky  • Glavsevmorput Island  • Great Lyakhovsky Island  • Henrietta Island  • Jeannette Island  • Kolesovsky Islands  • Kotelny  • Krestovyy Island  • Little Lyakhovsky Island  • Medvyezhi Islands  • Mikhalkino  • New Siberian Islands  • Novaya Sibir  • Ploskiy  • Routan Islands  • Ryyanranot  • Shalaurova  • Sukhornyy  • Uparovskiy  • Usun Ary  • Vilkitsky  • Vkhodnoy  • Wrangel Island  • Zhokhov Island

Coordinates: 70°52′N 161°26′E / 70.867, 161.433

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