Far Eastern Marine Nature Reserve

Dalnevostochny Morskoy Nature Reserve
Russian: Дальневосточный морской заповедник (Also: Far East Marine Reserve)
IUCN category Ia (strict nature reserve)
Salvation Bay, in the East Sector of the Reserve
Location of Reserve
Location	Primorsky Krai
Nearest city	Vladivostok
Coordinates	Coordinates:
Area	64,316 hectares (158,930 acres)
Established	1978 (1978)
Governing body	Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (Russia)
Website	http://dvmarine.ru/

Dalnevostochny Morskoy Nature Reserve (Russian: Дальневосточный морской заповедник) (also Far East Marine Reserve) is Russian's first marine reserve, covering large portions of the sea and 30 islands in Peter the Great Gulf, on the west side of the Sea of Japan. It has the highest class of environmental protection as a federal 'zapovednik' (strict ecological reserve). There are four distinct areas with different biological and protection regimes, covering 63,000 ha (240 sq mi) of sea area, additional land on included islands, a 500-meter conservation strip of coastline along the marine area, and a conservation buffer zone inland to a width of 3 miles. The reserve is situated on the continental coast south of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. The administrative district is Khasansky District of Primorsky Krai. It was formally established in 1978. The reserve is part of the UNESCO "Far East Reserve" MAB Biosphere Reserve, noted for its protection of marine biodiversity, and as a re-population area for open seas fisheries.

The Far East Marine Reserve covers about 10% of the total surface area of Peter the Great Gulf. The depth of the water average 60–70 meters in the area, and tides average about 0.5 meters. The waters of the reserve are of high transparency and purity, due to circulation patterns in the gulf. The reserve is divided into four sectors:

Being a marine reserve, most of the scientific focus is on the ecology of the seas, but there are islands and coastal buffers, which present a landscape of rocky cliffs and capes, and small peninsulas and bays. Inland from the coast are coniferous and deciduous forests.

The Far East Marine Reserve is located in the Sea of Japan maritime ecoregion. In this sea, bounded by Asia, Japan, and the Sakhalin Islands, the Far East Reserve is on the west coast in the center. The Sea is Japan is distinct from the Pacific Ocean, with lower salinity, higher levels of dissolved oxygen, relatively little tidal movement, and little contribution of water from rivers (less than 1% of the gulf's waters). It is also at the meeting zone of boreal waters to the north and tropical waters to the south. As a result of its characteristics, the region has very high levels of biodiversity. The coastal lands and terrestrial parts of the islands are in the Manchurian mixed forests ecoregion.