Vries Strait (Пролив Фриза,Proliv Friza), historically also known as theDe Vries Strait, is astrait between two main islands of theKurils. It is located between the northeastern end of the island ofIturup and the southwestern headland ofUrup Island, connecting theSea of Okhotsk on the west with thePacific Ocean on the east. It has a width of 42 km.
TheDutch sailorMaarten Gerritszoon Vries explored the seas north ofJapan for theDutch East India Company in 1643.[1] Sometimes credited with making the first European contact with Urup and Iturup, he actually recorded exaggerated nonsense orphantom islands, claiming the region held the enormous continentalCompany Land—named after theVOC—and the large and prosperousStaten Island, named after theStates General. "Vries Strait" was the imaginary body of water that separated these imaginary places. However, they both survived on European maps of the region for well over a century, even afterVitus Bering's lieutenantMartin Spanberg disproved their existence in anything like Vries's account.[2][3] Nonetheless, having survived for so long on so many maps, the name was carried over to describe the extant strait between the actual islands in the area.
The strait forms a major division in the plantlife of the Kurils, called theMiyabe Line (Japanese:宮部線,Miyabe-sen) by theJapanese botanistKingo Miyabe.[4]
45°30′20″N149°10′36″E / 45.50556°N 149.17667°E /45.50556; 149.17667
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