In general, heat flux between atmosphere and ocean in sea-ice zones has not been understood well. Since sea ice acts as heat insulator, air–ocean heat flux is greatly affected by both ice concentration and ice thickness. Some meteorological datasets (e.g. ERA-40, NCEP/NCAR and OMIP) provide air–ocean heat flux in sea-ice zones. However, in making these datasets, the ice concentration and thickness are not taken into account. For example, coastal polynya, high air–ocean heat exchange area, cannot be resolved due to the coarse spatial resolution. Ice freezing and melting causes large salt and freshwater flux, respectively. However, the amount and the spatial distribution are also unknown. In this study, heat/salt flux dataset is created in the Sea of Okhotsk. In the heat flux calculation, ice concentration and thin-ice thickness are taken into consideration. Salt supply due to freezing and freshwater supply due to melting are considered in the salt flux. The ice concentration, thickness and motion are derived from AMSR-E. This heat/salt flux dataset is expected to be useful for comparison and validation of the climate modeling. Annual mean of the net heat budget shows a distinct contrast, significant cooling of the ocean in the north and heating of the ocean in the south. This contrast is a result of negative heat transfer by both sea ice and the southward East Sakhalin Current. Large amount of sea-ice formation in the north, its southward transport, and its melting in the south provide salt flux in the north and freshwater flux in the south. From monthly salt budget, a large amount of ice melting is shown at the ice edge during the whole winter. In the ice melt season, remarkable ice melting is shown at the coastal polynya region probably due to large solar heating of the upper ocean. This indicates that the coastal polynya works as a ‘meltwater factory’ in the ice melt season, contrasting with its ‘ice factory’ in winter. In the coastal polynya region, interannual variability of the spatial distribution of phytoplankton bloom estimated from Aqua MODIS chlorophyll data corresponds well with that of the remarkable ice melt region. This suggests that intensification of the upper ocean stratification by the ice melting enhances the phytoplankton growth.