List of seas
This is a list of seas – large divisions of the World Ocean, including areas of water, variously gulfs, bights, bays, and straits.
Terminology
- Ocean – the four to seven largest named bodies of water in the World Ocean, all of which have "Ocean" in the name. See Borders of the oceans for details.
- Sea has several definitions:
- * A marginal sea is a division of an ocean, partially enclosed by islands, archipelagos, or peninsulas, adjacent to or widely open to the open ocean at the surface, and/or bounded by submarine ridges on the sea floor.
- * A division of an ocean, delineated by landforms, currents, or specific latitude or longitude boundaries. This includes but is not limited to marginal seas, and this is the definition used for inclusion in this list.
- * The World Ocean. For example, the Law of the Sea states that all of the World Ocean is "sea", and this is also common usage for "the sea".
- * Any large body of water with "Sea" in the name, including lakes.
- Strait - a narrow area of water connecting two wider areas of water
- Channel - Usually wider than a strait
- Passage - Connects waters between islands
- Canal - Man-made channel
- Fjard - A large open water between groups of islands
- Bay – generic term; though most features with "Bay" in the name are small, some are very large
- – a very large bay, often a top-level division of an ocean or sea
- Fjord – a long bay with steep sides, typically formed by a glacier
- Bight – a bay that is typically shallower than a sound
- Sound – a large, wide bay which is typically deeper than a bight, or a strait
- Cove – a very small, typically sheltered bay
- Polynya – Least used out of all, Patch of water surrounded by ice
Marginal seas
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.[Atlantic Ocean]
In addition to the marginal seas listed in the three sub-sections below, the Arctic Ocean itself is sometimes also considered a marginal sea of the Atlantic.The Americas
- North Water Polynya
- Baffin Bay
- Davis Strait
- Labrador Sea
- Hudson Bay
- *James Bay
- Gulf of St. Lawrence
- Gulf of Maine
- * Bay of Fundy
- * Massachusetts Bay
- * Cape Cod Bay
- Nantucket Sound
- Vineyard Sound
- Buzzards Bay
- Narragansett Bay
- Rhode Island Sound
- Block Island Sound
- Fishers Island Sound
- Long Island Sound
- * Shelter Island Sound
- * Noyack Bay
- * Peconic Bay
- * Gardiners Bay
- * Tobaccolot Bay
- * Sag Harbor Bay
- * Three Mile Harbor
- * Long Beach Bay
- * Pipes Cove
- * Southold Bay
- * Flanders Bay
- * Napeague Bay
- * Fort Pond Bay
- * North Sea Harbor
- New York Bay
- * Upper New York Bay
- * Lower New York Bay
- Jamaica Bay
- Raritan Bay
- Sandy Hook Bay
- Delaware Bay
- Chesapeake Bay
- Albemarle Sound
- Pamlico Sound
- Bermuda Triangle - Note that while this sea is unrecognized by any official authority, it does have strictly defined boundaries.
- Gulf of Mexico
- * Florida Bay
- * Tampa Bay
- *Charlotte Harbor Estuary
- * Pensacola Bay
- * Mobile Bay
- * Vermillion Bay
- * Bay of Campeche
- Caribbean Sea
- * Gulf of Gonâve
- * Gulf of Honduras
- * Golfo de los Mosquitos
- * Gulf of Venezuela
- **Lake Maracaibo
- * Gulf of Paria
- * Gulf of Darién
- Argentine Sea
Africa and Eurasia
- Norwegian Sea
- North Sea
- * Kattegat
- * Skagerrak
- * Wadden Sea
- * Dogger Bank
- Baltic Sea
- * Gulf of Bothnia
- * Kvarken
- * Bothnian Sea
- * South Kvarken
- * Sea of Åland
- * Archipelago Sea
- * Gulf of Finland
- ** Vyborg Bay
- ** Neva Bay
- ** Koporye Bay
- ** Luga Bay
- ** Narva Bay
- * Gulf of Riga
- * Curonian Lagoon
- * Vistula Lagoon
- * Gdańsk Bay
- * Bay of Pomerania
- * Szczecin Lagoon
- * Bay of Greifswald
- ** Rügischer Bodden
- * Strelasund
- * Bay of Lübeck
- * Bay of Kiel
- * Kalmar Strait
- * Bight of Hanö
- * Danish straits
- ** Oresund Strait
- ** Fehmarn Belt
- ** Great Belt
- ** Little Belt
- English Channel
- * Strait of Dover
- Irish Sea
- Celtic Sea
- * Iroise Sea
- Bay of Biscay
- * Cantabrian Sea
- Mediterranean Sea
- * Adriatic Sea
- * Aegean Sea
- ** Argolic Gulf
- ** Myrtoan Sea
- ** North Euboean Gulf
- ** Saronic Gulf
- ** Sea of Crete
- ** South Euboean Gulf
- ** Icarian Sea
- ** Thermaic Gulf
- ** Thracian Sea
- * Alboran Sea
- * Balearic Sea
- * Gulf of Lion
- * Gulf of Sidra
- * Ionian Sea
- ** Gulf of Corinth
- * Levantine Sea
- ** Cilician Sea
- * Libyan Sea
- * Ligurian Sea
- ** Gulf of Genoa
- * Sea of Cyprus
- * Sea of Sardinia
- * Sea of Sicily
- ** Inland Sea, Gozo
- * Tyrrhenian Sea
- * Sea of Marmara
- * Black Sea
- ** Sea of Azov
- Gulf of Guinea
Northern islands
- Irminger Sea
- Denmark Strait
- Irish Sea
- Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland
- * Sea of the Hebrides
[Arctic Ocean]
- Chukchi Sea
- East Siberian Sea
- Laptev Sea
- Kara Sea
- Barents Sea
- * Pechora Sea
- * White Sea
- Queen Victoria Sea
- Wandel Sea
- Greenland Sea
- Lincoln Sea
- Baffin Bay
- The Northwest Passages
- * Prince Gustav Adolf Sea
- * Amundsen Gulf
- *
- Hudson Strait
- Hudson Bay
- * James Bay
- Beaufort Sea
[Southern Ocean]
- Amundsen Sea
- Bass Strait
- Bellingshausen Sea
- Cooperation Sea
- Cosmonauts Sea
- Davis Sea
- D'Urville Sea
- Drake Passage
- Great Australian Bight
- Gulf St Vincent
- Investigator Strait
- King Haakon VII Sea
- Lazarev Sea
- Mawson Sea
- McMurdo Sound
- * Polynyas in McMurdo Sound
- Riiser-Larsen Sea
- Ross Sea
- Scotia Sea
- Somov Sea
- Spencer Gulf
- Weddell Sea
- * Weddell Polynya/Maud Rise Polynya
[Indian Ocean]
- Andaman Sea
- * Gulf of Martaban – An arm of the Andaman Sea in the southern part of Burma
- Arabian Sea
- Bay of Bengal
- Gulf of Aden
- Gulf of Oman
- Laccadive Sea
- Mozambique Channel
- Persian Gulf
- Red Sea
- Somali Sea
- Timor Sea
- Palk Strait
- Gulf of Khambhat
- Gulf of Kutch
- Gulf of Mannar
- Palk Bay
[Pacific Ocean]
Americas
- Bering Sea
- Chilean Sea
- Sea of Chiloé
- Gulf of Alaska
- Gulf of California
- Grau Sea
- Salish Sea
Asia and Oceania
- Arafura Sea
- Bali Sea
- Banda Sea
- Bay of Kampong Som
- Bay of Plenty
- Bismarck Sea
- Bohai Sea
- Bohol Sea
- Camotes Sea
- Celebes Sea
- Ceram Sea
- Coral Sea
- Devil's/Dragon's Sea
- East China Sea
- Flores Sea
- Gulf of Carpentaria
- Gulf of Thailand
- Halmahera Sea
- Hauraki Gulf
- Hawke's Bay
- Java Sea
- Koro Sea
- Molucca Sea
- Philippine Sea
- Poverty Bay
- Savu Sea
- Sea of Japan
- Sea of Okhotsk
- Seto Inland Sea
- Sibuyan Sea
- Solomon Sea
- South China Sea
- * Natuna Sea
- ** North Natuna Sea
- South Seas
- Sulu Sea
- Tasman Sea
- Visayan Sea
- Waihau Bay
- Yellow Sea
Defined by currents
- Sargasso Sea – North Atlantic Gyre
Proposed
-
Not included
- Salt lakes with "Sea" in the name: Aral Sea, Caspian Sea, Dead Sea, Salton Sea
- Freshwater lakes with "Sea" in the name: Sea of Galilee
- Extraterrestrial oceans: List of largest lakes and seas in the Solar System
- Gulfs, bays, and straits and other bodies of water in lakes
- Coral Reefs
- Deltas
- Glaciers
- Marshes
- Oceans
- Ocean banks
- Ocean gyres
- Oceans
- Reefs
- Rivers
- Swamps
- Swimming Pools/Water Parks
- Wetlands