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Photos From Around the North Pacific

A collection of images of the varied shorelines, communities, and wildlife found along the Temperate Northern Pacific region stretching from North America to Japan

This article was originally published by The Atlantic and is republished here under license.
Waves crash over a walrus on a beach.
Mike Korostelev / Getty
Waves crash over a Pacific walrus on a beach in Chukotka, Russia.
The tail of a humpback whale, seen in a harbor with a distant city port and even more distant snow-capped dormant volcano
Byron M. O’Neal / Getty
A humpback whale raises its tail before a deep-feeding dive, with the Port of Tacoma and Mount Rainier in the background.
A white-colored black bear walks along large river rocks in a temperate rainforest.
Wolfgang Kaehler / LightRocket / Getty
A spirit bear (Ursus americanus kermodei) walks along a river looking for salmon on Gribbell Island, Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada, on September 6, 2025.
Salmon swim through the surf near the mouth of a river, seen inside a cresting wave.
Naoki Haranaka / The Yomiuri Shimbun / Reuters
Salmon, on their way to spawn, swim through the surf near the mouth of a river in Mashike, Hokkaido prefecture, Japan, on September 24, 2023.
A crumbling, abandoned lighthouse, built onto a rocky cliff
Andronius / iStockphoto / Getty
The abandoned Aniva Lighthouse stands on the shore of Russia’s Sakhalin Island. The structure was built in the 1930s, during a period when this part of the island was controlled by Japan.
The shell of a crashed WWII-era bomber aircraft sits on grassy ground.
Michael Nolan / RobertHarding / Getty
The shell of a grounded B-24 Liberator bomber in Bechevin Bay, on Alaska’s Atka Island. Bad weather forced the crew to make a crash landing, which they survived, on December 9, 1942.
Several curious sea lions swim underwater beside a diver.
Edb3_16 / iStockphoto / Getty
Curious sea lions swim beside a diver near Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada.
A pair of surfers catch a bore tide—a wide single wave flowing through a relatively narrow and shallow channel, seen among nearby mountains.
Streeter Lecka / Getty
A group of surfers catch the bore tide on Turnagain Arm, near the town of Girdwood, Alaska, on July 15, 2014. Alaska’s famous bore tide occurs in a spot southeast of Anchorage, in the lower arm of Cook Inlet called Turnagain Arm, where wave heights can reach 6-10 feet and move at 10-15 mph. The water temperature stays around 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
An aerial view of homes built along a rocky coastline in a dense neighborhood
James MacDonald / Bloomberg / Getty
An aerial view of homes built along the coast in the Oak Bay neighborhood of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, seen on July 1, 2025
Several herds of reindeer, as well as a few people, walk down a long beach.
Sergei Dubrovskii / iStockphoto / Getty
A reindeer herd is brought to a new camp along the seacoast on Sakhalin Island.
Morning fog lingers over part of the Oregon coast, with mountains and rock formations along the shore.
Craig Tuttle / Design Pics Editorial / Universal Images Group / Getty
Morning fog lingers over Ecola State Park in northern Oregon, not far from Haystack Rock and Cannon Beach.
A sea-otter mother swims with her pup snoozing on her belly.
Michael Nolan / RobertHarding / Getty
A sea-otter mother swims with her pup near Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park.
Visitors in a small boat observe a volcanic flow reaching the ocean, sending plumes of steam into the air.
JanelleLugge / Getty
Visitors in a small boat observe a volcanic flow reaching the ocean on Russia’s Chirpoy Island.
A cruise ship passes in front of the face of a tall glacier.
Tim Rue / Bloomberg / Getty
A cruise ship passes in front of Margerie Glacier in Alaska’s Glacier Bay on July 12, 2019.
An aerial view of an Alaskan village on a long and narrow spit of land
Joe Raedle / Getty
An aerial view from a drone shows the village of Kivalina, Alaska, which sits at the very end of an eight-mile barrier reef located between a lagoon and the Chukchi Sea, on September 10, 2019. Kivalina and a few other native coastal Alaskan villages face troubles because of the warming climate, which has resulted in the loss of sea ice that buffers the island’s shorelines from storm surges and coastal erosion.
A large black-and-white eagle reaches out its talons over icy water.
Ondrej Prosicky / iStockphoto / Getty
A Steller’s sea eagle reaches for something in icy water in Sakhalin, Russia.
An aerial view of a lighthouse and rock formations beside a small city in northern California
Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times / Getty
The Battery Point Lighthouse stands above Crescent City, California, seen on April 13, 2020.
A diver interacts with a beluga whale underwater.
Andrey Nekrasov / ZUMA Wire / Reuters
A diver interacts with a beluga whale in the Sea of Japan on October 15, 2014, along Russia’s Russky Island.
A brown bear rests on driftwood on a beach.
Spiridon Sleptsov / iStockphoto / Getty
A brown bear rests on driftwood on a beach along the Sea of Okhotsk, in Russia’s Khabarovsk Krai.
A view of a port city backdropped by a tall snow-capped volcano
Alexander Piragis / Getty
A view of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, backdropped by the Koryaksky Volcano, seen on August 31, 2020.
A deactivated lighthouse sits on a small rock outcrop in the ocean.
John_Brueske / Getty
Tillamook Rock Light, a deactivated lighthouse, sits on a small rock outcrop off the northern Oregon coast.
Fur seals run into the surf near an abandoned structure.
Janelle Lugge / iStockphoto / Getty
Fur seals run into the surf near an abandoned structure on Tyuleny Island, in the Sea of Okhotsk.
A small pod of orcas swims near an island.
Roclwyr / iStockphoto / Getty
A pod of orcas swims near Washington’s San Juan Islands.
Two prominent rocks jut up out of the surf, joined together with a thick rope, seen at sunrise.
Sandirais / RooM RF / Getty
The Married Couple Rocks, a sacred rock formation joined by a long rope, photographed at sunrise near a Shinto shrine in Mie prefecture, Japan

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