Body of water, northern Pacific Ocean.
Enclosed by Alaska, the Aleutian Islands , the Kamchatka Peninsula, and eastern Siberia , it covers 885,000 sq mi (2,292,150 sq km). It has numerous islands, including the Aleutians, Nunivak, St. Lawrence, and the Pribilofs . It is crossed diagonally by the International Date Line . The sea is connected to the Arctic Ocean by the Bering Strait, which separates Asia from North America and is believed to have been a land bridge during the Ice Age that enabled migration from Asia to North America. Vitus Bering 's exploration of the sea and strait in 1728 and 1741 formed a basis for Russian claims to Alaska.