Nikolaya Bay

Nikolaya Bay (Russian: Zaliv Nikolaya), formerly Usalginsky Bay, is a small, narrow bay in the northwestern Sea of Okhotsk, just south of the Shantar Islands. It is a southeastern branch of the larger Academy Bay to the north. Its northern and southern points, Lamsdorf Point and Cape Grote, are separated by only 8 km (5 mi), while the bay itself is about 59.5 km (37 mi) deep in a southerly direction. The Tokara Peninsula separates it from Ulban Bay to the west. The Usalgin River runs into its head. Spring tides rise 5.5 m (18 ft), while neaps rise 2.4–3 m (8–10 ft). There is ice in the bay from mid-November to mid-July.[1]

History

Nikolaya Bay was frequented by American whaleships between 1854 and 1885. The ships anchored off Potter's Head (Cape Grote) or in the mouth of the bay and sent smaller whaleboats to the head of the bay to search for bowhead whales. They called it Potter's Bay,[2] after Oliver Potter, master of the barque Antelope (340 tons), of Newport, who caught whales in the bay in 1853.[3][4]

On 7 October 1856, the ship Natchez (524 tons), of New Bedford, was wrecked on the west side of the bay while attempting to seek shelter from a gale. Most of the crew was rescued by the bark Harmony; four men, including the third and fourth mates, decided to stay the winter and protect the ship. In July 1857, the ship Italy picked up the three survivors – one had died in June after a prolonged illness. She also salvaged most of the 1,200 bbls of oil and 18,000 lbs of whalebone left aboard the vessel when she had wrecked.[3][5] Ships were still pilfering items from the wreck in 1858.[6]

In 1865 two whaleships hid at the head of the bay from the CSS Shenandoah.[7]

Russian schooners and boat crews from Mamga also cruised for bowheads in the bay from 1865 to 1871.[8]

Wildlife

In the spring beluga whales feed on spawning capelin, smelt, and herring in Nikolaya Bay, while in the summer they aggregate at the head of the bay to feed on spawning salmon in the upper reaches of the Usalgin River and its estuary.[9] In the summer bowhead whales can also be seen in the bay.[10]

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References
  1. United States. (1918). Asiatic Pilot, Volume 1: East coast of Siberia, Sakhalin Island and Chosen. Washington: Hydrographic Office.
  2. William Wirt, of New Bedford, July 18-22, 1854, Kendall Whaling Museum (KWM); Mary Frazier, of New Bedford, July 17, 1857, Nicholson Whaling Collection (NWC); Florida, of Fairhaven, July 26, 1860, in Willaims, H. (1964). One whaling family. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, p. 146; Sea Breeze, of New Bedford, July 12–13, 1874, G. W. Blunt White Library; Mary and Helen II, of San Francisco, Aug. 14, 1885, KWM.
  3. Starbuck, Alexander (1878). History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the year 1876. Castle. ISBN 1-55521-537-8.
  4. Charles Melville Scammon papers, 1849-1911, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
  5. Hawaii. (1865). Reports of a portion of the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of the Hawaiian Islands in law, equity, admiralty, and probate. Honolulu: Govt. Press.
  6. Carolina, of New Bedford, July 23-26, 1858, Old Dartmouth Historical Society.
  7. Onward, of New Bedford, August 13-27, 1865, Nikolaya Bay, GBWL #856. She was joined by the Charles W. Morgan on August 17.
  8. Lindholm, O. V., Haes, T. A., & Tyrtoff, D. N. (2008). Beyond the frontiers of imperial Russia: From the memoirs of Otto W. Lindholm. Javea, Spain: A. de Haes OWL Publishing.
  9. Solovyev, B. A., Shpak, O. V., Glazov, D. M., Rozhnov, V. V., & D. M. Kuznetsova. (2015). "Summer distribution of beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in the Sea of Okhotsk". Russian J. Theriol. 14 (2): 201-215.
  10. Shpak, O. V., Meschersky, I. G., Chichkina, A. N., Kuznetsova, D. M., Paramonov, A. Y., & V. V. Rozhnov. (2014). "New data on the Okhotsk Sea bowhead whales". Paper presented to the Scientific Committee of IWC 65. 5 pp.

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