The Sargasso Sea is an unusual sea, unlike other seas on our planet. It has no earthly shores. This is an area of ​​​​the Atlantic Ocean with stagnant water, surrounded on all sides by currents: in the east - the Canary, in the south - the Trade Wind, and in the northwest - the North Atlantic.
Here are some amazing facts about the Sargasso Sea: about its features, Sargassy algae and inhabitants.

They circle, moving only clockwise around the waters of the Sargasso Sea, and do not allow them to connect with the very cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean, so the water temperature in the Sargasso Sea never drops below +18 degrees. In summer, the temperature on the water surface can reach +28 degrees. If in other seas the coastal boundaries are unchanged, then in the Sargasso Sea they change, and the area of ​​the sea itself changes accordingly (from 4 to 8 million square kilometers).

Why does the Sargasso Sea have such a name? In 1492, Christopher Columbus, for the first time in the history of mankind, with his expedition found himself in this sea, in stagnant waters, completely covered with algae, on which some berries could be seen. To be fair, it should be noted that there is not always so much vegetation during the year, but apparently Columbus was unlucky. He later said that he had the feeling that he was in a jar of seaweed. The fruits on the algae reminded the sailors very much of the wild grapes from their native places, which were called “salgaso”, from which the algae were called sargassum, and the sea itself was called Sargasso.
The Sargasso Sea is quite deep (6 to 7 km). The water in it is very salty and at all times was amazingly clean and transparent (up to 60 m). However, in last years Ships sailing in the Atlantic Ocean throw out huge amounts of garbage. Ocean currents they take it down to a certain part of the Sargasso Sea, so that now there is a man-made floating island of garbage on the sea.
Scientists initially thought that the sargassum was carried here by the current, but later it turned out that they grow on the bottom of the sea, then break off and float on the surface of the water surface. When their lifespan comes to an end, they sink to the bottom and rot.

Many Marine life chose the sargassum “thickets” as their home. Here you can see various crabs, turtles, pipefish, mackerel, shrimp, corals and others. Obviously, the most bizarre representative of the depths of the Sargasso Sea is the clown sea. It clings to the sargassum with fins that look like twisted arms. It must be said that the clown is a good master of camouflage; he disguises himself as the algae surrounding him. Hiding in them, a clown fish can grab and devour prey as big as itself. And if he gets scared, he begins to quickly swallow water and swells up to a spherical state.
But most well-known representative The animal life of these waters is the European eel. It lives quietly for several years in fresh European waters, and when it reaches adulthood, along with external changes, the eel has an irresistible desire to get into the waters of the Sargasso Sea. Gathering in groups, eels begin to move towards their target at night. Sometimes, moving from body of water to body of water, they end up in shallow water overgrown with grass. It would seem a hopeless situation, but the desire to get into salt water is so strong that the fish literally crawls through these areas. In three months, eels can travel almost six thousand kilometers from Europe. And here she is desired salty water Sargasso Sea! There they descend to a depth of more than a kilometer, lay eggs and die. The eggs hatch into fry that rise to the surface and are picked up warm waters Gulf Stream and set off on a long journey to Europe. Then they grow up, and the cycle repeats again.

There have always been many legends around the Sargasso Sea and scary stories. Some of them are related to sargassum. Sailors said that there could be so much algae that the ship became entangled in it and could not move. In fact, algae does not interfere with the movement of the ship, although it can cover almost the entire surface of the water.
Sailboats actually often died here, but because of the calm. The ship could stand motionless for many days, supplies of water and provisions ran out, and people died. Previously, thoroughbred horses were transported along this route; often the ship with the animals found itself in a calm state. To save the remaining water, the horses were thrown overboard. Since then, these places have also been called “horse latitudes.” They say that sailors of ships passing here at night see ghosts of horses and hear their plaintive neighing.
At all times, it is believed that the Sargasso Sea is a graveyard of ships. Yes, there are wrecks here, but there are also many tales of untold riches and treasure chests at the bottom of this fantastic sea.
In ancient times, these waters were called cursed. The proximity of the notorious Bermuda Islands, or more precisely, the Bermuda Triangle, located on the eastern part of the Sargasso Sea, also leaves its mark. Here, for unknown reasons, many people died, many schooners, warships, and airplanes disappeared. Problems arose even with ultra-modern airliners equipped with powerful radio communications. In the 20th century, three American military planes flew over these places, communication with them was interrupted, and the planes disappeared. They were never found.
Skeptics try to explain such cases bad weather, hurricane, fog or something else, but no one can answer the question: why no one has ever discovered even a small piece of debris from the missing ship.

The largest sea in the world and the most extraordinary sea on our planet is the Sargasso Sea, whose area is 6 - 7 million km2 (the area varies depending on currents). It is located in the North Atlantic Ocean and is formed by four currents that create water cycle, and being the “shores” of this sea: the Canary, North Trade Wind, Gulf Stream and North Atlantic currents. It is these currents that do not allow the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean to penetrate inside, so a unique microclimate has formed there, where there is practically no wind, the water is warm both in winter and in summer, and is always clean and transparent. The water temperature in winter does not fall below 18 degrees Celsius, and in summer it reaches 28 degrees Celsius. Thanks to currents, the Sargasso Sea seems to rotate clockwise.

The discoverer of this sea was Columbus. He happened to get here at a time when unique brown algae growing at the bottom, which have roots, leaves, and fruits, break off and float to the surface, covering the entire water surface. The appearance of algae fruits resembles wild grapes “salgaso”, so sailors called them sargassum, and the sea itself became Sargasso.

Sometimes it was called a “graveyard” and a “trap” because the sailboats that swam into it could not escape due to the lack of wind and died. But in fact, a diverse and numerous life is in full swing here. Inhabited by fish and crabs, turtles, shrimp, corals, and the European eel travels many thousands of kilometers, difficult path to lay eggs and die in the salty waters of the Sargasso Sea. Its offspring then return to European waters.

The Sargasso Sea is very deep, in some places the depth reaches just under 7 kilometers. It is very salty and clean. But in recent years, ocean pollution has greatly affected the cleanliness of the Sargasso Sea. Garbage thrown from ocean liners is picked up by currents and carried into the center of the sea. A floating garbage island has already formed on the surface.

There are many legends about the Sargasso Sea, it is shrouded in secrets and speculation, and is an amazing place on our planet.

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It turns out that defining such a seemingly simple concept as the sea is not at all easy. There is no generally accepted definition, which means there is no generally accepted classification of seas either.

The sea is usually defined as a large part of the world's oceans, which in some ways differs from this ocean itself. The sea has its own special climatic, hydrological and meteorological regime due to the fact that for some reason the free exchange of water between the sea and the “open” ocean slows down. Most often, this is due to the configuration of the seashore or the rise of the underwater relief to the surface of the water. Thus, the Sea of ​​Azov is connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Black and Mediterranean Sea, but the salinity of the water here and the fauna and flora are significantly different from those in the ocean. The border between Aegean Sea and Mediterranean are defined very conditionally along the line connecting the islands of Crete, Karpathos and Rhodes. It is difficult to determine the difference between these seas if you are not an expert.

And immediately everyone who has studied geography remembers the seas that are not connected to the ocean: the Caspian, the Aral, the Dead... They do not fit the above definition, but are considered seas. But neither Baikal nor Lake Kinneret, located very close to Dead Sea, for some reason they are not considered as such.

Another exception to the seemingly strict definition is a sea without shores. Yes, there is such a thing. It is called the Sargasso Sea and is located in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of America. At its northwestern tip are Bermuda. Christopher Columbus discovered it on his voyage, before reaching the shores of America. At some point sea ​​water, along which his caravels sailed, became motionless and became covered with many plants. In addition, at that moment the wind disappeared. It seemed to the sailors that these plants clung to the sides of their boats and did not allow them to sail further. "We are dead!" - was the first thought. In addition, at night the sailors saw a large starfall in the sky, which was also interpreted as a sign of trouble. God knows what could have happened next if Columbus had not ordered the oars to get away from both the calm and the strange water covered with algae. A few days later the wind blew and a current appeared. Soon the sailor on watch saw the islands. This marked the end of a glorious journey that, without exaggeration, changed the course of world history.

Columbus, of course, marked it on the map strange place. But it was studied later. And the sea received its name later. It was named Sargasso after the algae that covered the entire water surface here. Portuguese sailors called these algae "sargassum", "small grapes".

But why does this sea exist without shores? What limits it from other ocean waters? What makes the waters of the Sargasso Sea different from other waters of the Atlantic Ocean?

The answer is: underwater currents. The Sargasso Sea region is bounded on all sides by Atlantic currents. In the west it is - warm current Gulf Stream, in the north - North Atlantic Current. In the east, the waters of the Sargasso Sea are limited by the Canary Current, and in the south by the North Trade Wind Current. It was this latter that urged Columbus's ships at the beginning of his journey across the open ocean. In general, these four currents form a circular movement of ocean waters in a clockwise direction.

As always, if water begins to move in a circle, a place is formed in the center where it is motionless. This is the Sargasso Sea. It is precisely because the surface layer of water here is motionless that the Sargas rise to the surface and form a huge “carpet”. This "carpet" is visible even from space. Space stations and satellites have repeatedly photographed the surface of the Sargasso Sea for biological research.

Unfortunately, they photographed him for other purposes as well. The fact is that the circular current, as if forming the “shores” of the Sargasso Sea, sucks in any kind of easy debris floating on the surface of the Atlantic in tropical latitudes. Almost one hundred percent of this garbage consists of plastic bottles and boxes. The laws of nature cannot be fooled - all the garbage, swirling in a circular current, slowing down its movement, gradually moves towards the center of the Sargasso Sea, where, stopping, it forms huge spots of plastic waste. Because the

As a rule, a small space in the ocean, which is framed by islands and continental shores, receives the status of a sea. However, the exception is the Sargasso Sea, since it has no shores at all. This kind of “sea without shores” is located in the west of the Atlantic Ocean. Unlike other seas, the Sargasso Sea is different unique properties water, amazing tranquility and peculiarities of the living population, this cannot be found in the waters of the Atlantic. Such differences are facilitated by the circulation of currents, which runs clockwise, creating peculiar boundaries in the sea.

Today the Sargasso Sea remains mysterious place for humanity. In the Middle Ages there was an unkind rumor about him. And the reason is that a significant part of the maritime territory is located in the Bermuda Triangle, which is located in the southwest of the Atlantic Sea. In addition, the Sargasso Sea is considered the only sea of ​​its kind that has no boundaries on land. From all its borders, the Sargasso Sea is repulsed by strong currents, including the Gulf Stream. Also in this zone of the World Ocean there are strong thickets of algae, which, floating on the surface of the sea, resemble islands of land. Such islands sometimes circle in place, but it seems that the sea water here is motionless, because they move very slowly.

Another mystery of the Sargasso Sea is the year-round calm, windless weather. Therefore, this sea has a bad reputation; it is called a ship graveyard. Medieval sailing ships stopped when they became calm, and it was impossible to row manually due to algae. For this reason, the sailors relied on the appearance of the wind or slowly died.

Interestingly, only algae grows in the Sargasso Sea, but their quantity is sufficient for most small fish and other living creatures that live and feed among them. Many fish choose these waters for breeding because of the warmth, salinity and cleanliness.

Inhabitants of the Sargasso Sea

It is the Sargasso Sea that is called the homeland of eels, which live in the Atlantic Sea basin. Eels swim here to spawn, but they don’t come back from here. Eel larvae hatch in local waters, and then the fry develop. Adults travel to Europe.

Science fiction writers appreciated this interesting natural object. Edward Hamilton, Jules Verne, Warner Munn, Andre Norton and many others often used Sargassum seaweed or the Sargasso Sea theme in their works.

It is noteworthy that almost all living creatures of the Sargasso society differ in color and shape, which is hidden in the algae. The fish resemble twigs and leaves, and their body color has yellow-brown shades, which perfectly camouflages them. It's hard to see among the sargassum branches seahorse. The Sargassum clownfish also camouflages itself - its body resembles a sargassum branch.

Most people are familiar with the breeding history of the European eel in the Sargasso Sea. After all, for hundreds of years no one knew where exactly this fish reproduces. This has been the centuries-old mystery of the Sargasso Sea. It is interesting that they create offspring in its waters, then return here to die in its abyss. Such loyalty to the homeland is an amazing development among the fishing community.

A little more about the inhabitants

It is noteworthy that it was thanks to eels that scientists were able to detect currents at significant depths in the ocean, because this is where the fish go. The discovered current is the opposite of the Gulf Stream, which is why it received the name Anti-Gulf Stream. Thanks to this current, the eels return to their spawning grounds. The story about eels can be continued endlessly, the American eel from North America spawns in another region of this sea, and uses a certain branch of the current as passing transport to rivers and American shores.

Inhabitants Sargasso Sea are sea turtles that saved sailors during calm periods. These wonderful turtles eat algae. Jellyfish and invertebrate animals are also found here. Even sharks are found in this unusual sea, mainly: pelagic sharks, blue sharks, silkies and makos. Almost no one swims in this sea, so sharks do not pose a danger to people.