Barents << BAR uhnts >> Sea lies north of Norway and the European part of Russia. It is one of the seven seas of the Arctic Ocean.
The sea was named for Willem Barents, a Dutchman who explored it from 1594 to 1596. Warm waters from the North Cape Current keep a yearlong shipping lane open along the coast to the Russian port of Murmansk. Three-fourths of the sea may freeze in winter. Commercial fishing crews catch cod, herring, and haddock in its waters.
