50 Interesting Facts about Seas and Oceans

There is a "dead spot" in the Black Sea where scientists have found ships as old as 1200 years preserved well enough to see chisel marks from the original builder.

2. The deepest ocean sinkhole in the world is in the South China Sea and is named the Dragon Hole, or Longdong. It is roughly 987 feet deep. Below 328 feet, the hole is devoid of oxygen and deadly to marine life.

3. There is an area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in which scientists have discovered a large number of great white sharks congregate every year. They have nicknamed this stretch of the ocean "The White Shark Café."

4. Ocean Farts (Ocean Flatulence) are massive blowouts of methane gas from seafloor sediments. This was once thought to cause ships to sink within the infamous Bermuda Triangle.

5. The Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic is the only 'sea' with no land borders but instead is surrounded by ocean currents. It is known for being incredibly clear and full of a particular species of floating seaweed.

Evaporation of the man-made Salton Sea in USA cause algal blooms from concentrated fertilizer runoff, botulism-tainted fish, massive bird die-offs that require 24/7 incineration of the carcasses, and toxic, foul-smelling clouds of dust that waft into Los Angeles.

7. The Pacific and Atlantic oceans are at different heights, with the Pacific's water line being about 40 cm taller.

8. The area that is now the Mediterranean Sea was once dry, but about 5 million years ago the Atlantic Ocean poured through the Strait of Gibraltar at a rate 1000 times that of the Amazon, filling the Mediterranean Sea in about 2 years.

9. One milliliter of seawater can contain up to 10 million virus particles. That volume of seawater may also contain a million bacteria whereas sea sediment and soil can contain up to a billion virus particles per cubic centimeter.

10. There are more multi-cellular zooplanktons per square kilometer in the Chukchi Sea than there are stars in the Milky Way and collectively there are more planktons than there are galaxies in the observable universe.

There is an area in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where spacecrafts that are no longer needed have been routinely deposited. It is known as the "Spacecraft Cemetery," and notably it is also the place where the defunct Mir space station rests.

12. The "Blue Hole" in Red Sea is a dive site which is reputed to have the most diver fatalities in the world with estimates of between 130 and 200 fatalities in recent years. One of these deaths is recorded in full on a dive camera.

13. "Southern Ocean" is a 5th ocean in the world. One reason for considering it as a separate ocean stems from the fact that much of the water of the Southern Ocean differs from the water in the other oceans.

14. The Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone, an area of hypoxic (less than 2 ppm dissolved oxygen) waters, which supports fewer organisms and has been linked to massive fish kills and can cover up to 6,000-7,000 square miles (9656-11265 square kilometers) at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

15. There is a 1.5 km thick layer of salt deep beneath the sea floor of the Mediterranean Sea from the near complete drying up of the Mediterranean Sea 5.5 million years ago.

There was once a plan to drain a part of the North Sea (using dams) to increase the livable area of Europe and connect the British Isles to continental Europe.

17. During the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami on 26 December 2004, fishermen said they saw with their own eyes "the reality of generations of legends the remains of ancient temples and hundreds of refrigerator-sized blocks, all briefly exposed before the sea swallowed them up again."

18. Hudson Bay and its shores are populated by more Beluga whales than people.

19. The Ross Sea in the Southern Ocean near Antarctic is the most pristine marine ecosystem on earth. It is a living laboratory for scientists. Commercial fishing for the Antarctic Toothfish in the area however has threatened to destroy its natural balance.

20. The Pacific Ocean is getting smaller and the Atlantic Ocean is getting bigger due to the shifting of the Tectonic Plates.

The Baltic Sea doesn't mix with the North Sea due to the difference in their density.

22. The Caspian Sea is actually a lake and it is so large that it accounts for 44% of the world's lake water.

23. The Caribbean Sea makes a whistling sound that can be heard from space.

24. The Aegean Sea is named after Aegeus, the father of Theseus. Aegeus told Theseus to put up white sails when returning if he was successful in killing the Minotaur. Theseus forgot & Aegeus subsequently drowned himself in the sea.

25. The youngest sea in the world is the Baltic Sea which is between 10,000 - 15,000 years old.