Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Bering Sea is named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born navigator sailing in Russian service. In 1728, he became the first European to systematically explore the sea, sailing northward from the Pacific Ocean through what is now the Bering Strait.
The Bering Sea covers over 2,000,000 square kilometers. It is bordered by Alaska to the east and northeast, the Russian Far East and Kamchatka Peninsula to the west, the Aleutian Islands and Alaska Peninsula to the south, and the Bering Strait to the far north.
The Bering land bridge was a land connection between Asia and North America that existed when sea levels were low enough during the last glacial period. Most scientists accept it as the first point of entry of humans into the Americas, though not all agree. Other animals, including megafauna, also migrated in both directions across it.
Commercial fisheries on the U.S. side of the Bering Sea catch approximately one billion dollars worth of seafood annually. Russian Bering Sea fisheries are valued at approximately 600 million dollars annually. Landings from Alaskan waters represent half the entire U.S. catch of fish and shellfish.
The Bering Sea is home to beluga, humpback, bowhead, gray, blue, sperm, fin, sei, and North Pacific right whales. The North Pacific right whale is described as the rarest whale in the world. The fin whale and sei whale are both endangered.
Two Bering Sea species are extinct due to human overexploitation: the Steller's sea cow and the spectacled cormorant. A small subspecies of Canada goose, the Bering Canada goose, also became extinct from overhunting and the introduction of rats to its breeding islands.