Celtic Sea | |
---|---|
Location | Northwestern Europe |
Coordinates | 50°N8°W / 50°N 8°W |
Type | Sea |
Basin countries | Ireland, England, Wales, France |
Surface area | 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi) |
The Celtic Sea [a] is the area of the Atlantic Ocean off the southern coast of Ireland bounded to the north by Saint George's Channel; [1] other limits include the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay, as well as adjacent portions of Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. The continental shelf, which drops away sharply, delimits the southern and western boundaries. The Iroise Sea off Brittany is entirely included within it. The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of small islands in the sea.
The Celtic Sea receives its name from the Celtic heritage of the bounding lands to the north and east. [2] E. W. L. Holt proposed the name at a 1921 meeting of fisheries experts from Great Britain, France, and Ireland in Dublin. [2] This sea's northern portion was considered part of Saint George's Channel, and the southern portion was an undifferentiated part of the "Southwest Approaches" to Great Britain. The desire for a common name came to be felt because of the area's common marine biology, geology and hydrology. [2]
It was adopted in France before being common in English-speaking countries. [2] In 1957, Édouard Le Danois wrote, "the name Celtic Sea is hardly known even to oceanographers." [3] Marine biologists and oceanographers adopted it, and later, by petroleum exploration firms. [4] It is named in a 1963 British atlas, [5] but a 1972 article states, "what British maps call the Western Approaches, and what the oil industry calls the Celtic Sea [...] certainly the residents on the western coast [of Great Britain] don't refer to it as such." [6]
The seabed under the Celtic Sea is referred to as the Celtic Shelf, part of the continental shelf of Europe. The northeast portion has a depth of between 90 and 100 m (300–330 ft), increasing towards Saint George's Channel. In the opposite direction, sand ridges pointing southwest have a similar height, separated by troughs approximately 50 m (160 ft) deeper. These ridges were formed by tidal effects when the sea level was lower. South of 50°N, the topography is more irregular. [7]
Oil and gas exploration in the Celtic Sea has had limited commercial success. The Kinsale Head gas field supplied much of the Republic of Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. The water is too deep for fixed wind turbines. The area has potential for 50 GW of floating wind farms, and TotalEnergies plans a project with almost 100 MW. [8]
The Celtic Sea has a rich fishery with total annual catches of 1.8 million tonnes as of 2007. [9]
Four cetacean species occur frequently: minke whale, bottlenose dolphin, short-beaked common dolphin and harbor porpoise. [10] Formerly, it held an abundance of marine mammals. [11] [12]
There are no land features to divide the Celtic Sea from the open Atlantic Ocean to the south and west. For these limits, Holt suggested the 200- fathom (370 m; 1,200 ft) marine contour and the island of Ushant off the tip of Brittany.
The definition approved in 1974 by the UK Hydrographer of the Navy for use in Admiralty Charts was "bounded roughly by lines joining Ushant, Land's End, Hartland Point, Lundy Island, St. Govan's Head and Rosslare, thence following the Irish coast south to Mizen Head and then along the 200-metre isobath to approximately the latitude of Ushant." [13]
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Celtic Sea as follows: [14]
On the North. The Southern limit of the Irish Sea [a line joining St David's Head to Carnsore Point], the South coast of Ireland, thence from Mizen Head a line drawn to a position 51°0′N11°30′W / 51.000°N 11.500°W .
On the West and South. A line from the position 51°0′N11°30′W / 51.000°N 11.500°W South to 49°N, thence to latitude 46°30'N on the Western limit of the Bay of Biscay [a line joining Cape Ortegal to Penmarch Point], thence along that line to Penmarch Point.
On the East. The Western limit of the English Channel [a line joining Île Vierge to Land's End] and the Western limit of the Bristol Channel [a line joining Hartland Point to St. Govan's Head].
The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busiest shipping area in the world.
The Norwegian Sea is a marginal sea, grouped with either the Atlantic Ocean or the Arctic Ocean, northwest of Norway between the North Sea and the Greenland Sea, adjoining the Barents Sea to the northeast. In the southwest, it is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a submarine ridge running between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. To the north, the Jan Mayen Ridge separates it from the Greenland Sea.
The Bay of Biscay is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward to Cape Ortegal. The southern area of the Bay of Biscay that washes over the northern coast of Spain is known locally as the Cantabrian Sea.
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales and South West England. It extends from the smaller Severn Estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean. It takes its name from the English city and port of Bristol.
The Java Sea is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its northwest links it to the South China Sea. It is a part of the western Pacific Ocean.
The Celebes Sea or Sulawesi Sea of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawesi's Minahasa Peninsula, and the west by northern Kalimantan in Indonesia. It extends 420 miles (675 km) north-south by 520 mi (840 km) east-west and has a total surface area of 110,000 square miles (280,000 km2), to a maximum depth of 20,300 feet (6,200 m). South of the Cape Mangkalihat, the sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea.
Ushant is a French island at the southwestern end of the English Channel which marks the westernmost point of metropolitan France. It belongs to Brittany and in medieval times, Léon. In lower tiers of government, it is a commune in the Finistère department. It is the only place in Brittany, save for Brittany itself, with a separate name in English.
The Davis Strait is a southern arm of the Arctic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis (1550–1605), who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage. By the 1650s it was used for whale hunting.
The Chukchi Sea, sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The principal port on the Chukchi Sea is Uelen in Russia. The International Date Line crosses the Chukchi Sea from northwest to southeast. It is displaced eastwards to avoid Wrangel Island as well as the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug on the Russian mainland.
The Ligurian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. It lies between the Italian Riviera (Liguria) and the island of Corsica. The sea is thought to have been named after the ancient Ligures people.
St George's Channel is a sea channel connecting the Irish Sea to the north and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It separates Wexford on the southeastern corner of Ireland from St Davids in on the southwestern tip of Wales.
The Singapore Strait is a 113 km-long (70 mi), 19 km-wide (12 mi) strait between the Strait of Malacca in the west and the South China Sea in the east. Singapore is on the north of the channel, and the Indonesian Riau Islands are on the south. The two countries share a maritime border along the strait.
The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean, overlying the continental shelf between Australia and Western New Guinea, which is the Indonesian part of the Island of New Guinea.
Iroise or the Iroise Sea is the part of the Atlantic Ocean which stretches from the Ile de Sein to Ushant off the coast of Brittany in north-western France. It is contained within the Celtic Sea, bordering the remainder of the Celtic Sea to the north and west, and the Bay of Biscay to the south. It is one of the most dangerous seas in Europe for sea-going vessels. In winter, there are often violent storms with huge waves. It is also one of the richest areas for marine life and was designated as one of UNESCO's biosphere reserves in 1988 and as France's first marine park in October 2007.
The geography of the North Sea studies coastal and submarine features as well as the people who live on its coasts. It is bounded by the east coasts of England and Scotland to the west and the northern and central European mainland to the east and south, including Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. In the south-west, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively. In the north, it opens in a widening funnel shape to the Norwegian Sea, which lies in the very north-eastern part of the Atlantic.
The Irish Sea is a 46,007 km2 (17,763 sq mi) body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Channel. Anglesey, North Wales, is the largest island in the Irish Sea, followed by the Isle of Man. The term Manx Sea may occasionally be encountered.
The borders of the oceans are the limits of Earth's oceanic waters. The definition and number of oceans can vary depending on the adopted criteria. The principal divisions of the five oceans are the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern (Antarctic) Ocean, and Arctic Ocean. Smaller regions of the oceans are called seas, gulfs, bays, straits, and other terms. Geologically, an ocean is an area of oceanic crust covered by water.
The Fromveur Passage, sometimes called St. Vincent's Channel, is a strait that lies between the island of Ushant and Kéréon lighthouse on Men Tensel Rock, off the coast of the French province of Brittany. It forms part of the northern limit of the Iroise Sea.
The Malin Sea is a marginal sea of the North-East Atlantic over the Malin Shelf, the continental shelf north of Ireland and southwest of Scotland. It is connected to the Irish Sea by the North Channel, and overlaps the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland. Of the UK Shipping Forecast areas, the Malin Sea covers most of Malin, and by some definitions extends into Rockall. The area is within the exclusive economic zones of Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The Celtic Seas is a marine ecoregion in northwestern Europe. It extends from the northern coast of Brittany in northern France along the western coast of Great Britain to northern Scotland, and the seas around Ireland. It includes the Celtic Sea, western portion of the English Channel and the Channel Islands, the Irish Sea, and the Malin Sea.