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.
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Strait of Tartary (Gulf of Tartary, Gulf of Tatary, Tatar Strait, Tartar Strait, Strait of Tartar, also Chinese: 韃靼海峽 , Japanese: 間宮海峡, Mamiya Strait, Russian Татарский пролив, Strait of Nevelskoy) is a strait in the Pacific Ocean dividing the Russian island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia (South-East Russia), connecting the Sea of Okhotsk on the north with the Sea of Japan on the south. It is 900 km long, 4-20 m deep, and 7.3 km wide at the narrowest point.
On Russian maps, Strait of Tartary's narrowest point is called Strait of Nevelskoy (Пролив Невельского), in memory of Capt. Gennady Nevelskoy who discovered that the strait of Tartary is connected with the estuary of the Amur River and thus is in fact a strait, and not a gulf.
The name Tartary named after the Tartars, an archaic name for various peoples of Inner Asia and Northern Asia. In this case it refers to the various peoples of Manchuria, which was historically called East Tartary in the English language.
In Japan, the strait is named after Mamiya Rinzo, who traveled to the strait in 1808 whereof the name was introduced by Philipp Franz von Siebold in his book Nippon: Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan (1832-54), while Russian authors prefer to name it after Admiral Gennady Nevelskoy, who explored the area in 1848.