Ocean Fisheries - Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the world's oceans, extending from the Arctic in the north to Antarctica in the south. Covering 169.2 million square kilometers, it is larger than all of the Earth's land area combined. The Pacific contains 25,000 islands (over half the islands in the world), most of which are south of the equator.

The Pacific's greatest asset is its fish. The shoreline waters of the continents and the more temperate islands yield herring, salmon, sardines, snapper, swordfish, and tuna, as well as shellfish.
Pacific seas : Statistics
Region Area
million km2		 Volume
million cu km		 Mean depth
km		 Max depth
km		 Coastline
km		 Fish harvest
million tonnes		 Percent
of total
Celebes Sea 0.280 6.2
Coral Sea
East China Sea 1.249
Philippine Sea
Sea of Japan 0.978 1.753 3.742
South China Sea 3.5
Sulu Sea
Tasman Sea
Yellow Sea
Pacific seas: Maps and descriptions

The Celebes Sea has warm clear waters and harbors about 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building corals, which grow as some of the most bio-diverse coral reefs in the world, and an impressive array of marine life, including whales and dolphins, sea turtles, manta rays, eagle rays, barracuda, marlin and other reef and pelagic species. Tuna and yellow fin tuna are also abundant. The sea also yields other aquatic products like sea tang.

The Coral Sea is an ecologically important source of coral.

The East China Sea.

The Philippine Sea.

The Sea of Japan. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure. It has an area of 978,000 square kilometre, a mean depth of 1,753 meters, and a maximum depth of 3,742 meters.

The areas in the north and the southeast are rich fishing grounds. The importance of the fishery in the sea is well illustrated by the dispute between South Korea and Japan over Liancourt Rocks.

The South China Sea is the repository of large sediment volumes delivered by the Mekong River, Red River and Pearl River. Within the sea, there are over 200 identified islands and reefs, including a 100 km wide seamount with a depth of 20 m and an area of 8,866 km². According to studies made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Philippines, this body of water holds one third of the all world's marine biodiversity, thereby making it a very important area for the ecosystem.

The Sulu Sea.

The Tasman Sea features a number of coastal islands and mid-sea island groups.

The Yellow Sea

Read more about this topic:  Ocean Fisheries

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