The Great Southern Ocean without external shores, in the center of which is the giant ice island-continent of Antarctica.
How many oceans are there in the World Ocean? In many countries, there are three: Pacific, Atlantic and Indian. In a number of countries, the Arctic and Southern (Arctic) oceans are distinguished. Some oceanographers consider the Southern Ocean to be the only one, and all the rest are considered as its bays. The Pacific Ocean was originally called the South Sea.
Arctic (Hyperborean) and Southern (Arctic) oceans were first identified in 1650 by the Dutch geographer Bernhard Varenius. According to the classification adopted in 1845 by the Royal Geographical Society in London, five oceans are distinguished: the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific, Arctic and Southern. In 1952, at the International Hydrographic Congress in Monaco, the Arctic Ocean was abolished and attached to the Atlantic Ocean as the North Polar Sea. In Russia and a number of other countries, the former name is preserved, which, based on geopolitical expediency, was officially adopted by a decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR in 1935. At the congress in Monaco, its participants reached an agreement not to single out an independent Southern Ocean, since the absence of its noticeable morphological and orthographic boundaries with the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean caused controversy among geographers. The name of the ocean was restored in the Soviet Atlas of Antarctica (1966, 1969), where the Antarctic Convergence Zone (the northern boundary of the Antarctic surface waters) near 55° south latitude was taken as the boundary of the Southern Ocean. It is present in the 3rd edition of the fundamental Atlas of the World (2002). Maps of Australia refer to the "Southern Ocean" as the sea areas immediately south of the continent.
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The Southern Ocean is a great and mighty river encircling the whole Earth, occupies a significant part of the southern (oceanic) hemisphere. It does not have a clearly defined outer northern border with islands and continents. An important argument for distinguishing the Southern Ocean is the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which unites the waters adjacent to Antarctica. In 2000, the member states of the International Hydrographic Organization decided to establish its water area within the limits limited by the Antarctic Treaty, i.e. part of the globe south of the 60th parallel south latitude. The area of the Southern Ocean is 20.3 million km² (between the coast of Antarctica and the 60th parallel of south latitude), the greatest depth (South Sandwich Trench) is 8428 meters. There are 14 seas off the coast of Antarctica. The most important islands of the Southern Ocean: Kerguelen, South Shetland and South Orkney. The Antarctic shelf is submerged to a depth of 500 meters. |
Borders of the Southern Ocean according to the Marine Hydrophysical Institute (Sevastopol, Crimea) 
Climate and weather. Sea temperatures vary from about −2 to 10 °C. The cyclonic eastward movement of storms around the continent often becomes intense due to the temperature contrast between the ice and the open ocean. The ocean region from 40 degrees south latitude to the Antarctic Circle has the strongest average winds on Earth. In winter, the ocean freezes to 65 degrees south latitude in the Pacific sector and 55 degrees south latitude in the Atlantic sector.
Icebergs in the Southern Ocean are found all year round. Up to 200,000 icebergs aged from 6 to 15 years, with a length of 500 meters to 180 km and a width of up to several tens of kilometers, are simultaneously located in the waters of the ocean. Icebergs and floating ice, especially from May to October, pose a serious threat to navigation, and search and rescue operations are difficult due to the great distance from inhabited areas.
Since the era of sailing ships, latitudes from 40 to 70 degrees south latitude are known to sailors as the "Roaring Forties", "Furious Fifties" and "Shrill Sixties" due to extreme weather. Storm wind and huge waves are formed due to the movement of huge masses of air and water around the globe, without encountering significant obstacles on their way and getting accelerated due to the inertia of the Earth's rotation from west to east.
Despite the harsh climate, the Southern Ocean is teeming with life. Due to the subpolar location, there is a sharp seasonal dynamics of solar radiation - the most important condition for photosynthesis. The Southern Ocean has huge resources of zooplankton, krill (crustaceans), numerous sponges and echinoderms, there are representatives of several families of fish. The mass accumulation of krill is especially characteristic of the Antarctic regions. Here the biomass of krill reaches 22 billion tons, which makes it possible to catch up to 50-70 million tons of krill annually. Krill is the main food of whales, seals, fish, cephalopods, penguins and many birds.
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In the twentieth century, the Southern Ocean became a region of active whaling from different countries. Since 1946 whaling fleets have been sent to Antarctic waters in the Soviet Union.
Until 1959, the Slava whaling base was the flagship of the Soviet Antarctic whaling flotilla. The ship was built in Great Britain for a Norwegian whaling company in 1929, sailed under the flags of Britain, Panama and Germany (since 1938) and in 1946 was transferred to the Soviet Union under reparations. Odessa became the main base of the flotilla, fresh supplies, water and fuel were usually taken in Cape Town, later in Montevideo. Over 2,000 whales were caught on the record 17th voyage. In 1966, Slava was relocated from Odessa to Vladivostok and in 1970 was sold to Japan and cut into scrap metal in Taiwan. The modern whale base "Soviet Ukraine" was put into operation, and then "Yuri Dolgoruky", "Soviet Russia", etc.
Due to intensive international fishing, whale stocks have been undermined. Controlling catch quotas in the Southern Ocean has been difficult. For example, the Japanese, engaged in the same whaling, controlled the Russians, and the Russians controlled the Japanese. Both of them did not comply with the established quotas.
I remember that at my university I had a diploma student from the Sovetskaya Ukraina whale base, who solemnly handed me not official, but actual statistics on whaling. It was impossible to use this information in the open Soviet press.
Soviet whalers, like the sailors of the merchant fleet, made good money in the post-war years. And the state allowed, as an exception, the construction of a whaling village with individual houses in Odessa (long before mass cooperative construction).
After defending my thesis, a whaler gave me a half-liter bottle of spermaceti, which has been successfully used in everyday life as an anti-burn ointment for many years. Back then, spermaceti was mistaken for sperm whale sperm (hence the name). In fact, this waxy substance was obtained by cooling liquid animal fat (oil) enclosed in the head of a sperm whale.
The most powerful in the world Antarctic circumpolar oceanic cold current or current of the West Winds with a length of up to 30 thousand km and a width of up to 2.5 thousand km in the Southern Hemisphere, it goes around between 40 ° and 50 ° south latitude from west to east the entire globe.
In the upper layer of oceanic waters, the current is mainly caused by the influence of the prevailing westerly winds. In a number of regions, a gigantic water current includes the entire mass of water up to the ocean floor. The core of the current coincides with the south polar front, which separates the waters of the southern parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans from the cold Antarctic waters. In the surface layer of oceanic waters, the current velocity varies from 0.4 to 0.9 km/h. The Falkland and Benguela Currents branch off from the Antarctic Current in the Atlantic Ocean, the West Australian Current in the Indian Ocean, and the Peruvian Current in the Pacific Ocean.
The oceanic power of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current encounters no obstacles in its path, except for the Drake Passage and the underwater South Antilles Ridge. This is clearly seen on any physical and geographical map of the World Ocean. The narrowing of its "banks" in the Drake Passage between Tierra del Fuego and the Antarctic Peninsula serves as a barrier to the path of the giant "river", where the current of Cape Horn (part of the West Winds current) accelerates.
The highest surface peaks of this range form the island of South Georgia, the South Sandwich, South Orkney and South Shetland Islands. In addition, in the north there is a shallow shelf of the South American continent and the Falkland archipelago. As a result, the giant current is trapped. Peculiar rapids with shelf shallows cause the water mass to form huge ocean shafts and deadly waves reaching a height of eighteen meters.
The westerly winds that generate the current meet the mountainous barrier of the Latin American Andes in their path and find the only detour through the Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands. As a result, a kind of giant "draught" is formed here when meeting with weaker easterly winds and cyclones, generating constant powerful storms in winter and, as a rule, once or twice a week at other times of the year.
On the map, in addition to the natural barrier on the path of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the route of the expedition of Bellingshausen and Lazarev is shown.
Even Soviet oceanologists singled out circumboundary gyres (currents) as the natural structure of the oceans. Therefore, in my opinion, the zoning of the World Ocean has not yet been completed. In my doctoral dissertation, the following natural and economic regions were distinguished.
International natural and economic regions of the World Ocean 
© V.A. Dergachev, 1986.
When the oceans were given names several centuries ago, the natural structure of the water masses was not known. On the map of the Atlantic, the circumboundary circulations (currents) of the two oceans are clearly visible. It is no coincidence, for example, that one can meet the names of the North and South Atlantic, etc.
Formalized models of the spatial organization of the Arctic (A) and Antarctic (B) international natural and economic regions on a comparable scale.
© V.A. Dergachev, 1986.
The solution of global geo-economic and geo-ecological problems is possible on the basis of the establishment of a new international order in the World Ocean, based on the principles of zoning - the allocation of Large Oceanic Spaces (holistic ecological and economic systems). How events will develop - whether they will follow the path of cooperation or confrontation - will be answered by the twenty-first century.
"Geopolitics of the Superpowers"
Oceanologists still do not have a common opinion regarding the Southern Ocean. Some argue that this is the fifth ocean, others - that it never existed. Both are probably right: on the one hand, the Southern Ocean is a product of the imagination of those who did not yet know about the existence of Antarctica, on the other hand, it is simply a part of the World Ocean formed by the confluence of the waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian. In turn, they consist of almost two dozen seas, where icebergs the size of Iceland float and cetaceans survive, fleeing poachers.
THE OCEAN WHICH IS NOT
On most sea navigation charts, there is no such thing as the Southern Ocean at all. Navigators also do not use it for practical purposes. Moreover, in the scientific community there is no agreement on the exact definition of its boundaries.
The Southern Ocean is a part of the World Ocean, covering the waters of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans surrounding Antarctica.
The Southern Ocean formed about 30 million years ago when South America separated from Antarctica, forming the Drake Passage.
The boundaries of this ocean are extremely conditional because the very definition of the location of the ocean is in question. As a separate ocean, it was marked on maps as early as 1650 by the geographer of German-Dutch origin Bernhard Waren, also called Bernhardus Varenius (1622-1650). In the last year of Varenius's life, his main work, Universal Geography: A General Scientific Systematized Description of the Earth's Surface, was published, in which Varenius tried to collect all the geographical knowledge accumulated by that time by mankind.
The reason why Varenius combined the Antarctic regions of the three oceans into one - the Southern - is that Antarctica had not yet been discovered at that time, as well as all other regions above the Antarctic Circle.
In 1845, the Royal Geographical Society in London tried to introduce the name "Southern Arctic Ocean", but it did not catch on.
The Southern Ocean was present on geographical maps until the beginning of the 20th century. In 1937, the International Hydrographic Organization used the name "Southern Ocean" in a number of publications. Moreover, many editions of geographical atlases referred to the Southern Ocean and the territory of the ice-covered continent of Antarctica. The boundary of the Southern Ocean was considered to be the latitude of the Antarctic Circle (66°33"44" S).
By the beginning of the XX century. the southern regions of the three oceans were already sufficiently studied, and disputes began in the scientific community regarding the boundary of the Southern Ocean. Each science considered its own way of determining the boundaries of the ocean to be the only true one. Hydrologists and climatologists drew the boundary of the Southern Ocean on the basis of the circulation of water and the atmosphere: 35 ° S. sh. Marine geologists, having studied the nature of the bottom, insisted on drawing a boundary along 60 ° S. sh. When compiling the Atlas of the Antarctic in 1969, oceanologists of the USSR drew the boundary of the Southern Ocean at 55 ° S. sh. - the northern border of the Antarctic Convergence Zone (the zone of convergence of northern, relatively warmer, and southern, cold surface waters).
In 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization adopted a division into five oceans, but this decision was not finally ratified.
Since the allocation of a separate ocean had no practical significance, the question of the Southern Ocean gradually disappeared from the practice of navigation, it ceased to be mentioned in nautical manuals. Currently, the topic of the Southern Ocean is sometimes raised by scientists specializing in very narrow branches of oceanology.
The question of the boundary of the Southern Ocean has remained controversial, but as a compromise, most experts draw the northern boundary at 60 ° N. sh., and the southern - along the coast of Antarctica. In accordance with this, the Southern Ocean can be considered the fourth largest.
The Southern Ocean is located in the South Polar Region of the Earth. Most often, this is the name given to the southern parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans adjacent to Antarctica. The coast of Antarctica is considered to be the southern boundary of the ocean, the northern boundary is conventionally drawn approximately along the parallel of 60 ° S. sh. Here (more precisely, up to 55 ° S. latitude) is the northern boundary of the Antarctic surface waters (Antarctic circumpolar current).
BETWEEN THE ROARING FORTY AND THE WARRING SIXTY
"Roaring Forties" sailors called the oceanic space between 40 ° and 50 ° latitude in the southern hemisphere of the Earth, where strong and steady westerly winds constantly blow, causing frequent storms.
A distinctive feature of the Southern Ocean is the atmospheric circulation of air masses moving over a considerable distance over the open ocean, nowhere encountering obstacles in the form of mountains or large areas of flat land.
Over the water area of the Southern Ocean, intense cyclonic activity is extremely developed. Most cyclones move from west to east. This zone is included in the area between the 60th and 70th parallels of south latitude, called the “howling sixties” due to the strongest wind that constantly prevails in this region, reaching a speed of 145 km / h and raising waves 15 m high and higher.
Another distinctive feature of the Southern Ocean is the course of the Western winds, which spreads throughout the entire water column and carries them in an easterly direction. To the south of this current, the Western Coastal Current is formed. The cold and dense water masses formed here move from the shores of Antarctica along the ocean floor far to the north.
It is here, in the Southern Ocean, that the largest icebergs are formed, constantly breaking off from the Antarctic ice sheet. At the same time, there are more than 200 thousand icebergs in the Southern Ocean. The average length of an iceberg is about 500 m, but there are colossal ice floes up to 180 km long and several tens of kilometers wide. Currents carry icebergs to the north, and they can even reach 35-40 ° S. sh .: a significant mass melts under the sun for a long time. The average duration of the existence of an iceberg in the Southern Ocean is 6 years, but there are also "veterans" aged 12-15 years.
Climatic conditions for the flora and fauna of the Southern Ocean only seem harsh. On the contrary, plants and animals have perfectly adapted to use the cold as a protective element. The Southern Ocean is distinguished by giant accumulations of phyto- and zooplankton, krill, many species of sponges and echinoderms live on the bottom. There are several families of fish here, but nototheniids predominate.
Birds are very peculiar: the southern giant petrel, black-browed albatross, skuas are able to travel long distances through the air, and the flightless penguin can walk on ice. The abundance of food explains the exceptional species diversity of whales (blue whale, fin whale, sei whale, humpback whale) and seals (Wedzell seal, crabeater seal, leopard seal, fur seal). Industrial fishing for cetaceans has seriously reduced their numbers, and now whaling is prohibited. Among other dangers that threaten the number of local fauna are poachers overfishing, breeding of rats on the Antarctic islands, where the number of bird nests is very high.
On the islands and the continental coast of the South Sea, the population is unstable and not numerous: these are primarily polar explorers. Other settlers in accordance with the Convention on Antarctica cannot be there, since the continent and islands located south of 60 ° S. sh., cannot belong to any state, and only scientific activity is allowed there. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the member states of the convention do not have territorial claims: very large territories on the continent are considered by Great Britain, Norway, Australia, since 1908 Great Britain has claimed the South Shetland Islands, since 1940 - Chile, since 1943 city - Argentina. The US and Russia also have their sights set on them. Since 1929, Norway has laid claim to the island of Peter I. There are a number of disputed islands in the Southern Ocean, but there is no permanent population on all of them, only in summer the islands are visited by scientific expeditions.
CURIOUS FACTS
■ Most of the southern ocean species of fauna that live at water temperatures close to freezing (up to -1.9 ° C) have in their blood and other body fluids a similarity to an automobile “anti-freeze”: glyco-proteins are a special combination of sugars with proteins that prevents ice formation in the body.
■ The grey-headed albatross is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the bird with the fastest horizontal flight: 127 km/h, the speed that the albatross kept for more than 8 hours, returning to the nest on South Georgia Island. The wandering albatross living there has the largest wingspan among birds: up to 325 cm.
■ Another Antarctic bird record holder, the Falkland Islands gentoo penguin, at 36 km/h underwater, is the fastest of all penguins.
■ The 60th parallel of south latitude is not only the northern boundary of the Southern Ocean, but also the northern boundary of the demilitarized zone free of nuclear weapons (1959 Antarctic Treaty).
■ In the Northern Hemisphere of the Earth, 61% of its surface is occupied by water, and in the Southern - 81%.
■ Sectors are distinguished in the Southern Ocean: the Atlantic - between the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula and the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope, the Indian - between the meridian of the Cape of Good Hope and the meridian of the South East Cape on the island of Tasmania, and the Pacific - between the meridian of the South East Cape on the island of Tasmania and the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
■ The South Sandwich Trench is not only the deepest in the Southern Ocean, but also the second deepest in the Atlantic Ocean - after the Puerto Rico Trench (8742 m).
ATTRACTION
■ Natural: Ross Ice Shelf, Una Peaks (Le Mer Channel), Bunger Oasis (West Wilkes Land), tabular icebergs, bird colonies.
The most little-studied and, perhaps, the most interesting from the point of view of science is the Southern or Antarctic Ocean. Until 2000, the concept of the "Southern Ocean" was conditional - this is how oceanologists called the part of the world ocean, consisting of the southern parts of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans and washing the shores of Antarctica.
The study of the specifics of this part of the world ocean, associated with the peculiarity of the hydrological regime of the Antarctic waters between the convergence zone and the northern coasts of Antarctica, which are united by the circumpolar current, the uniqueness of the bottom shelf, flora and fauna, as well as its special influence on the planet's climate, gave scientists reason to single out in 2000 the fifth Southern or Antarctic Ocean.
The boundary of the Southern Ocean runs along the 60th parallel of south latitude and corresponds to the northern boundary of the Antarctic convergence zone and the uniqueness of the bottom topography. Its area is 20,327 thousand square meters. km. and it is the fourth largest ocean on the globe. Its water part includes the Amundsen, Bellingshausen, Ross, Weddel-la seas, part of the Drake Passage, a small part of the Scottish Sea and other water areas of Antarctica. The relief of the Southern Ocean for the most part has a depth of 4,000 to 5,000 m with minor areas of shallow water. Its continental shelf is extremely deep, narrow and lies at depths from 400 to 800 m. The deepest point of the Antarctic Ocean is the southern tip of the Sandwich Basin - 7,235 m.
The largest ocean current in the world, which affects the formation and change of climate throughout the earth, is the Antarctic Polar Current. It moves east around Antarctica and carries 130 million cubic meters of water per second. This figure is a hundred times greater than the amount of water carried by all the rivers of the globe. The climate of the Southern Ocean is distinguished by its severity.
Fashionable direction of the 20-21 centuries - tours to Antarctica
The water temperature in the surface layers of the ocean varies from +10?C to -2?C. Due to the strong temperature contrast between the area of ice and the open ocean, cyclonic storms are almost constantly observed here, which move around Antarctica in an easterly direction. Harsh cold winds here blow much stronger than anywhere else on the planet. In winter, the Southern Ocean freezes up to 65 parallels south in the Pacific Ocean and to 55 parallels in the Atlantic Ocean, and surface temperatures drop well below zero.
The Roaring Forties…
Antarctic pack ice covers an average area from a low of 2.6 million square kilometers in March to a maximum of 18.8 million square kilometers in September, increasing about sevenfold during this time. They represent the largest supply of the purest fresh water on the planet. Fragments of ice shelves and continental glaciers form icebergs and floating ice. Individual Antarctic icebergs can exist for 10 or more years.
Despite the harsh climatic conditions of the Southern Ocean, living life in Antarctic waters is rich and unique. The waters of the southern ocean are extremely saturated with phyto- and zooplankton, represented primarily by krill. Krill is the basis of nutrition for many species of fish, cetaceans, penguins, squids, sponges, echinoderms, seals and other animals. Among the mammals that have adapted to living in such harsh conditions, penguins, fur seals, and seals should be noted. The waters of the Southern Ocean are a favorite habitat for many species of whales, such as the blue whale, fin whale, sei whale, humpback whale. An extremely rich species diversity of valuable species of oceanic fish, which are represented by endemic families of notothenia and white-blooded fish.
The non-vertebrate animals that live in the South Ocean waters are very peculiar. Of particular interest are huge jellyfish, reaching a weight of up to 150 kilograms. Penguins are a symbol of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. These peculiar birds with a vertical body position are represented by 17 species. They lead a semi-terrestrial lifestyle, feed on small crustaceans and fish in the water and do not know how to fly at all like their relatives.
The Southern Ocean, due to the very harsh climate, is still little studied and is of great interest for science and scientific discoveries. The secrets kept in the waters of the Southern Ocean will amaze humanity with their discoveries and sensations more than once.
Detailed information about the country: Southern Ocean. Photos, maps, population, cities, economy, climate, statistics compiled by the US CIA / World factbook
| Introduction | South ocean |
| The name of the country: | South ocean
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| Story: | The decision of the International Hydrographic Organization, adopted in the spring of 2000, determined the boundaries of the fifth world ocean, formed from the southern parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. The new ocean extends from the coast of Antarctica north to 60°S. sh., which is the internationally recognized boundary of Antarctica. The Southern Ocean is now the fourth largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, but larger than the Arctic). |
| Geography | South ocean |
| Location: | body of water from the coast of Antarctica north to the 60th parallel |
| Geographical coordinates: | 60°00'S, 90°00'E (nominal), but the Southern Ocean has the unique feature of being a large body of water around the pole, completely surrounding Antarctica; this ring of waters lies between the 60th parallel and the coast of Antarctica, enclosing 360 degrees of longitude |
| Map link: | Antarctic RegionShow map: Southern Ocean: |
| Country area: | total area: 20,327,000 sq. km 5th place / Compare with other countries: / Dynamics of change:
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| Area in comparison: | somewhat larger than double the size of the US |
| Coast length: | 17,968 km |
| Climate | South ocean |
| Climate: | sea temperature varies from about 10 °C to -2 °C; cyclonic storms move eastward around the continent, are often very strong due to the temperature contrast between the ice area and the open ocean; in the ocean region from about 40 ° S. sh. to the Antarctic Arctic Circle, stronger winds than anywhere else on Earth; in winter, the ocean freezes to 65 ° S. sh. in the Pacific Ocean sector, up to 55 ° S. sh. in the Atlantic Ocean sector, surface temperatures drop well below 0°C; in some parts of the coast, thanks to constant winds from the continent, the coastline remains ice-free all winter |
| Landscape: | The Southern Ocean is mostly deep (from 4,000 to 5,000 m), with small areas of shallow water; the Antarctic continental shelf is mostly narrow and unusually deep, its edge lies at depths of 400 to 800 m (with a world average of 133 m); Antarctic pack ice occupies an average area from a minimum value of 2.6 million km2. in March to about 18.8 million sq. km. in September, increasing more than sevenfold; The Antarctic Polar Current (21,000 km long) is constantly moving east, it is the largest ocean current in the world, carrying 130 million cubic meters of water per second, that is, a hundred times more than all the rivers of the world |
| Height above sea level: | lowest point: -7,235 m at the southern end of the Sandwich Basin;
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| Natural resources: | large and even huge reserves of oil and gas are likely on the shelf of the continent, manganese ores, deposits of gold, sand and gravel are possible, fresh water in the form of icebergs, squid, whales, seals (none of the above is mined); krill and fish |
| Natural disasters: | huge icebergs with a draft of up to several hundred meters; smaller ice floes and fragments of icebergs; sea ice (typically 0.5 to 1 m thick) that experiences short-term dynamic variations and large annual and seasonal variations; deep continental shelf with ice deposits, the thickness of which varies greatly even at short distances; strong winds and high waves throughout most of the year; icing of ships, especially in May-October; most of the region is inaccessible to search and rescue facilities |
| Environment: | growing solar ultraviolet radiation in recent years as a result of the formation of the ozone hole over Antarctica reduces the productivity of the sea (phytoplankton) by about 15% and damages the DNA of some fish; illegal, hidden and unregulated fishing in recent years, especially 5-6 times the legal fishing of Patagonian toothfish (fish of the Nototheniidae family), which may affect the abundance of the species; large numbers of seabird deaths from long net fishing for toothfish; |
| Environment - international agreements: | The Southern Ocean is the subject of all international agreements on the oceans, in addition, it is the object of agreements specifically for this region; The International Fisheries Commission prohibits commercial whaling south of 40°S. (south of 60° S between 50° and 130° W); The Antarctic Seal Protection Treaty restricts seal hunting; The Convention for the Conservation of the Living Marine Resources of Antarctica regulates fisheries; |
| Geography - note: | the narrowest point is the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica; the polar front is the best natural definition of the northern limit of the Southern Ocean; the polar front and the current pass around the whole of Antarctica, reaching 60 ° S. near New Zealand and almost 48°S. in the South Atlantic, coinciding with the direction of most westerly winds |
| Population | South ocean |
| Control | South ocean |
| Economy | South ocean |
| Economics - overview: | For the fishing season in 2005-2006. 128,081 metric tons of fish products were caught, of which 83% were krill and 9.7% Patagonian toothfish, compared with the 2004-2005 season, in which 147,506 tons were caught, where 86% krill and 8% Patagonian toothfish. At the end of 1999, international agreements were adopted to reduce illegal, hidden, indiscriminate fishing. For the period of the Antarctic summer 2006-2007. The Southern Ocean and Antarctica were visited by 35,552 tourists, most of whom arrived by sea. |
| Communication / Internet | South ocean |
| Transport | South ocean |
| Ports: | McMurdo, Palmer |
| Transport - addition: | The Drake Passage is an alternative passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean to the Panama Canal. |
| Defense | South ocean |
| Miscellaneous | South ocean |
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