Marginal sea

Marginal seas as defined by the IMO

The Arabian Sea as a marginal sea of the Indian Ocean

The term marginal sea has differing meanings. In one sense the term is equivalent to territorial waters.^[1] In another sense the term indicates a partially enclosed sea adjacent to or widely open to the open ocean, but bounded by submarine ridges.^[2] The definition of "marginal sea" is politically important as reflecting on the power of national claims over the resources of the sea.^[3]

Marginal seas of the world

The Norwegian Sea

Sources differ over which seas are considered marginal seas as well as which ocean a given sea is considered a marginal part of. There is no single ultimate authority on the matter.

Marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean:

• Barents Sea
• Beaufort Sea
• Chukchi Sea (separated by Wrangel Island)
• Kara Sea^[4]
• Laptev Sea (separated by the Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands)^[5]

The Irish Sea

Marginal seas of the Atlantic Ocean:

• Baltic Sea^[3]
• Black Sea
• Caribbean Sea^[3]
• English Channel
• Gulf of Mexico
• Hudson Bay^[2]
• Irish Sea (separated by Ireland)^[3]
• Mediterranean Sea^[3]
• North Sea (by Great Britain)^[3]
• Norwegian Sea (by Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Shetland); and Greenland Sea^[3]
• Scotia Sea (by the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and the South Sandwich Islands)
• Sometimes the Arctic Ocean itself is considered a marginal sea of the Atlantic.^[3][6]

Marginal seas of the Indian Ocean:

• Andaman Sea (separated by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands).^[7]
• Arabian Sea
• Bay of Bengal
• Java Sea (separated by the Greater Sunda Islands)
• Persian Gulf^[3]
• Red Sea^[3]
• Sea of Zanj (an historic entity off the southeast African coast and including the Mascarene islands)

Aegean, Adriatic, Ionian, and Tyrrhenian seas

Marginal seas of the Mediterranean Sea:

• Adriatic Sea
• Aegean Sea
• Alboran Sea
• Balearic Sea
• Black Sea^[3]
• Sea of Crete
• Ionian Sea
• Ligurian Sea
• Myrtoan Sea
• Thracian Sea
• Tyrrhenian Sea

Marginal sea of the Black Sea:

• Sea of Azov

Coral Sea

Marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean:

• Bering Sea (separated by the Aleutian Islands)
• Celebes Sea^[3]
• Coral Sea (by the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu).^[3]
• East China Sea (by the Ryukyu Islands)
• Philippine Sea (by the Ogasawara Islands, the Mariana Islands, and Palau)
• Sea of Chiloé (by Chiloé Island, Chile)
• Sea of Japan (by the Japanese Archipelago)^[3]
• Sea of Okhotsk (by the Kurile Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula)
• South China Sea (by the Philippines)^[3]
• Sulu Sea^[3]
• Tasman Sea (between Australia and New Zealand)
• Yellow Sea (by the Korean Peninsula)^[2]

Marginal seas of the Southern Ocean:

• Scotia Sea

The Caribbean Sea is sometimes defined as a marginal sea,^[3] sometimes as a mediterranean sea.^[2]

Look up marginal sea in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

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