The Sea of Okhotniye is separated from the hydrosystem of the Pacific Ocean by the island of Hokkaido, the ridge of the Kuril Islands, and the Kamchatka Peninsula. Seashores are isolated with fills (the largest bays are Shelikhov and Sakhalin).
In 2015 Russia extended its rights on the continental shelf area in the central part of the Okhotsk Sea, located beyond 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
This process took place in full accordance with the rules and provisions of the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention by appealing to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. However, this development has led to Sea of Okhotsk's legal status significant reduction especially in comparison with the legal status that was assigned in domestic legal doctrine previously.