Illegal fishing affects the sustainability of the sea and reduces the availability of food for other species. Between 2006-2007 for example, 126,976 metric tons of these species were captured.
It is also home to over 10,000 species, all perfectly adapted to the weather conditions, such as penguins, squids, whales, seals, krill, and a variety of fish.įishing is relatively fruitful, being krill and hake the most caught species. It is rich in nutrients and manganese nodules as well as possible oil and natural gas deposits. This ocean is a huge deposit of carbon and contains about 50 times more than the atmosphere.Įconomic Importance of the Southern Ocean.ĭue to the low levels of iron and sunlight, productivity is not high. Salinity is lower in the north, near the Antarctic Convergence where the colder waters flow below, the less cold waters of the Antarctic convergence. During winter most coastal waters are frozen except in some areas. During winter, the sea freezes at a latitude 65° south at the Pacific and a latitude 55° south in the Atlantic Ocean sector. Its temperature ranges between 10☌ and -2 ☌, but it has the strongest winds and waves in the world, as the temperature of the ice contrasts the open ocean. A continental shelf about 260 kilometers wide and a maximum of 2600 kilometers lies beneath this ocean. It has an average depth of 4000-5000 meters and touches around 17,968 kilometers of Antarctic coastline. This ocean has the largest ocean current, called the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The Antarctic Ocean, has an area of about 21.96 million square kilometers and includes: It connects the principal southern oceanic basins as well as the sea surface with deeper layers of water. It comprises the waters located in the southern hemisphere, whose boundaries are the Antarctic Convergence or latitude 60° south and the Antarctica coast.
It differs from the other oceans as it is the only one that surrounds a continent. Its limits were defined by this organization in 2000 but need confirmation from most oceanic agencies and administrations. Board on Geographic Names and the International Hydrographic Organization recognizes it already. Indeed, not all countries and researchers recognize it even though the U.S. The Antarctic Ocean, or the Southern Ocean, is the last ocean to be designated as such.