Oyashio Current

The nutrient-rich Oyashio is named for its metaphorical role as the parent (親, oya) that provides for and nurtures marine organisms.

[1][2] The current has an important impact on the climate of the Russian Far East, mainly in Kamchatka and Chukotka, where the northern limit of tree growth is moved south up to ten degrees compared with the latitude it can reach in inland Siberia.

However, the Oyashio Current also causes Vladivostok to be the most equatorward port to seasonally freeze and require icebreaking ships to remain open in winter.

During glacial periods, when lower sea level exposed the Bering land bridge, the current could not flow in the regions the Oyashio affects today.

This allowed Tōhoku and Hokkaidō – the only areas of East Asia with enough snowfall to potentially form glaciers – to remain unglaciated except at high elevations during periods when Europe and North America were largely glaciated.

The Oyashio Current colliding with the Kuroshio Current near Hokkaido . When two currents collide, they create eddies . Phytoplankton growing in the surface waters become concentrated along the boundaries of these eddies, tracing out the motions of the water.
The ocean currents surrounding the Japanese Archipelago: 1. Kuroshio 2. Kuroshio extension 3. Kuroshio countercurrent 4. The Tsushima Current 5. The Tsugaru Current 6. The Sōya Current 7. Oyashio 8. The Liman Current