A shallow shelf sea named for the golden silt the great rivers of China wash into it, and a vital flyway stopover for migratory birds.
Area
380,000 km²
Ocean basin
Pacific
Location
The shallow, sediment-stained sea of East Asia
Average depth
about 44 m
Maximum depth
about 150 m
Salinity
~31–32 ppt
Temperature
Cool, 6–28°C
Region
Between China & the Korean Peninsula
About the Yellow Sea
The Yellow Sea is a broad, shallow arm of the Pacific between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, stained ochre by the enormous load of fine sediment that its rivers pour in. Its vast tidal mudflats are a crucial refuelling stop for millions of migratory shorebirds on the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, and it still shelters ancient tri-spine horseshoe crabs.
Did you know?
It takes its name — and its colour — from the yellow silt carried in by the Yellow River and other great Chinese rivers.
Highlights
- Coloured by river silt
- A key migratory-bird flyway stop
- Home to ancient horseshoe crabs
Photo gallery
Life in the Yellow Sea
Creatures, seabirds and marine plants — including some of the rarest and strangest — that live in these waters.
Creatures of the deep
Horseshoe crab
A 450-million-year-old living fossil whose blue blood helps keep vaccines safe.
Cuttlefish
A master of disguise with W-shaped pupils that flashes rippling colour across its skin.
Moray eel
A reef ambush predator with a hidden second set of jaws in its throat to drag prey down.
Seabirds
Great cormorant
An expert diving seabird that perches with wings spread wide to dry its feathers.
Marine plants & algae
Eelgrass
A temperate seagrass whose waving meadows nurse young fish and lock away carbon.
Sea lettuce
A bright-green, paper-thin edible seaweed that drapes rocky shores worldwide.
Surface & deep in the Yellow Sea
The sea is warm where the Sun reaches it and cold far below. Flip between the sunlit surface and the deep water to feel the difference — these are typical figures for a sea.
Sunlit surface
22°C
typical surface temperature
Seas warm strongly at the surface in summer, but their deeper water stays cold and still — the sunlight simply never reaches it.
Recorded range for the Yellow Sea: Cool, 6–28°C