Shantar Islands

The Shantars are fifteen islands in the western Okhotsk Sea, uninhabited, and their situation is extreme: sea ice surrounds them for something like eight or nine months a year, and the water stays close to freezing through the short summer, which makes the plankton bloom late and intense. That draws whales. Bowhead whales - a population that was hunted to near-extinction here in the nineteenth century by American and European whalers and is recovering slowly - feed in the shallow bays, often within metres of the shore and of small boats, along with belugas, orcas and grey whales; brown bears fish the river mouths, and seabird colonies fill the cliffs. The national park was created in 2013. Access is helicopter or vessel from the mainland, permits are compulsory, the window is a few weeks, and fog and ice close it constantly. It is among the harder wildlife trips in Russia to actually complete.

History

The Nivkh people lived on the islands until the 1730s, and the explorer Ivan Moskvitin reportedly sighted them in April 1640, his account feeding the first Russian map of the Far East in March 1642. American whaleships hunted bowhead whales around the islands from 1852 to 1907, and the Shantar Islands National Park was created at the end of 2013 (Wikipedia, Shantar Islands).

The landscape

• The bowheads - whales feeding in shallow bays, often within metres of the shore.
• The ice regime - sea ice around the islands for eight or nine months a year.
• The bears and birds - brown bears at river mouths and large cliff colonies.
• The recovery - a whale population rebuilding after nineteenth-century hunting here.

When to go

Mid July to early September, the only ice-free window. Ten days to two weeks. Everything through licensed operators with permits.

What to expect

Fog, ice and swell cancel access constantly and trips are abandoned outright some seasons. Expensive helicopter or vessel charter is the only way in. Camps are basic and bears are present. Whale encounters are the point but not guaranteed.

Nearby

The Okhotsk coast is west; Khabarovsk is the staging city.

Key facts