The comparatively warm Pacific water
intrudes into the OS through the northern passages of the Kuril Islands,
primarily through the Krusenstern and Fourth Kuril straits and turns
northward with the Western Kamchatka Current (WKC). The WKC is
composed of two main branches: the northward flow along the western
shelf-break of the Kamchatka Peninsula (the Northern WKC) and the
northwestward flow (the Central WKC)