Bay of Biscay

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Bay of Biscay

The Bay of Biscay (Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
: Golfo de Vizcaya and Mar Cantábrico; French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
: Golfe de Gascogne
Gascony

Gascony is an area of southwest France that constituted a Provinces of France prior to the French Revolution. In historic references dating from the beginning of the Roman era, it was part of Gaul and became part of the Kingdom of the Franks during the conquests of Clovis I ....
; Basque

Basque language

Basque is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France....
: Bizkaiko Golkoa; Occitan

Occitan language

Occitan , known also as Lenga d'?c or Langue d'oc is a Romance languages spoken in Occitania, that is, Southern France, the Occitan Valleys of Italy, Monaco and in the Aran Valley of Spain....
: Golf de Gasconha) is a gulf

Headlands and bays

Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment....
of the North Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions; with a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres . It covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface....
.

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Geography

Parts of the continental shelf

Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
extend far into the bay, resulting in fairly shallow water in many areas and thus in the rough seas for which the region is known. The Bay of Biscay is home to some of the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Weather

Weather is a set of all the Phenomenon occurring in a given atmosphere at a given time. Weather phenomena lie in the hydrosphere and troposphere....
. Large storms occur in the bay, especially during the winter months. Up until recent years it was a regular occurrence for merchant vessels to founder in Biscay storms, and many lives were lost. Improved ships and weather prediction have reduced the toll of the storms.

Rivers

The main rivers that end in the Bay of Biscay are:

France: Loire
Loire River

The Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of , it drains an area of , which represents more than a fifth of France's land area....
, Charente
Charente River

The Charente is a river in western France, flowing into the Atlantic Ocean. It is 381 km long.Its source is in the Haute-Vienne departments of France at Ch?ronnac, a small village near Rochechouart....
, Garonne
Garonne

The Garonne is a river in southwest France and northern Spain, with a length of 575 km ....
, Dordogne
Dordogne River

The Dordogne is a river in south-central and southwest France....
, Adour
Adour

The Adour is a river in southwestern France. It rises in High-Bigorre , at the Col du Tourmalet, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Bayonne....
.
Spain: named westward : Bidasoa
Bidasoa

The Bidasoa is a river in the Basque Country of northern Spain and southern France that runs largely south to north. Named as such downstream of the small town of Oronoz-Mugairi in the province of Navarre, the river actually results from the merge of several streams near the village Erratzu, with the stream Baztan that rises at the nor...
, Urola
Urola

The Urola is a river and valley in Guipuzcoa , Basque Country , Spain.The river is only 55 kilometres in length, and runs from headwaters in the Aitzkorri, near the town of Legazpi to its outflow into the Cantabrian Sea at the town of Zumaia on the Bay of Biscay....
, Nervión
Nervión

The river Nervi?n runs through the city of Bilbao, Spain into the Cantabrian Sea .It is also known as Estuary of Bilbao on its final tract, from the joining with Ibaizabal river to the sea....
, Asón
ASON

An automatically-switched optical network is a telecommunications network which is based on technology enabling the automatic delivery of transport services....
, Pas
Pas River

The Pas River is located in the region of Cantabria in the northern part of Spain. The river flows through the autonomous community of Cantabria and empties into the Cantabric Sea....
, Deva
Deva River

The Deva is a river in Northern Spain, flowing through the Autonomous Communities of Cantabria and Asturias until it joins the Cares river and flows into the Atlantic Ocean, in the Bay of Biscay, where they form the Tina Mayor estuary which is the natural border between Asturias and Cantabria....
, Nalón
Nalón River

The Nal?n is a 153km long river and the longest river in the autonomous community of Asturias, Spain. It joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Bay of Biscay in San Esteban de Pravia. Its tributaries include the Narcea River....
, Navia, Eo
Eo River

The Eo is a river in northwestern Spain. Some 91 km in length, its estuary forms the boundary between the regions of Galicia, Spain and Asturias. The river is known for its salmon fishing....
, Landro, Sor
Sor Mañón

The River Sor of Ma??n flows between the provinces of A Coru?a and Lugo, in the autonomous communities of Spain of Galicia , Spain.The river has an impressive waterfall called Augas Ca?das in Ma?on parish....
.

Main cities

The main cities on the shores of the Bay of Biscay are:

France: Brest
Brest, France

Brest is a city in the Finist?re Departments of France in Bretagne in northwestern France.Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Brittany peninsula, Brest is an important port and naval base....
, Nantes
Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants , while its aire urbaine is the eighth with 804,833 inhabitants at a 2008 estimate....
, La Rochelle
La Rochelle

La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime Departments of France....
, Bordeaux
Bordeaux

is a Port city on the Garonne in southwest France, with one million inhabitants in its aire urbaine at a 2008 estimate. It is the Capital of the Aquitaine regions of France, as well as the Prefectures in France of the Gironde Departments of France....
, Bayonne
Bayonne

name= BayonneFile:Bayonne.jpgView of Grand Bayonne across the Adour|r?gion=Aquitaine|d?partement=Pyr?n?es-Atlantiques...
.
Spain: San Sebastian, Bilbao
Bilbao

Bilbao, is the largest city in the Basque Country in northern Spain and the capital of the province of Biscay .The city has 354,145 inhabitants and is the most financially and industrially active part of Greater Bilbao, the zone in which almost half of the Basque Country?s population lives....
, Santander
Santander, Cantabria

The port city of Santander is the capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain between Asturias and the Basque Country ....
, Gijon
Gijón

Gij?n , is a coastal industrial city and a municipality in the autonomous communities of Spain of Asturias in Spain. Early mediaeval texts mention it as "Gigia"....
.

History

The southern end of the gulf is also called in Spanish "Mar Cantábrico" (Cantabrian Sea), for the region of Cantabria

Cantabria

Cantabria is a Spain province and autonomous community with Santander, Cantabria as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Country , on the south by Castile and Le?n , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea....
, but this name is not generally used in English. It was named by Romans in 1st century BC as Sinus Cantabrorum (Bay of the Cantabri

Cantabri

The Cantabri were an ancient confederacy of eleven tribes, perhaps Celtic or Vasconic Neolithic Europe, that inhabited the north coast of Hispania in the whole modern province of Cantabria, the eastern third of Asturias and the nearby mountainous regions of modern Castile-Leon....
).

On some medieval maps, the Bay of Biscay is marked as El Mar del los Vascos, the Basque Sea. The Bay of Biscay is the birthplace of what is considered one of the world's most successful and most renowned maritime industries, the Basque and Cantabrian shipbuilders and fishermen.

The British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
Yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur

Ellen MacArthur

Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur, Order of the British Empire is an English sailor from Whatstandwell near Matlock, England in Derbyshire, now based in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight....
finished her first trip around the world here, and there is a famous song based on this.

On 22 January 2008, two Russian Tu-160 en route to the Bay of Biscay were intercepted by Norwegian and RAF fighter jets.

Wildlife

The car ferries from Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth city status in the United Kingdom located in the Counties of England of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is the UK's only island city and is located on Portsea Island....
to Bilbao

Bilbao

Bilbao, is the largest city in the Basque Country in northern Spain and the capital of the province of Biscay .The city has 354,145 inhabitants and is the most financially and industrially active part of Greater Bilbao, the zone in which almost half of the Basque Country?s population lives....
and from Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a City status in the United Kingdom and unitary authority on the coast of Devon, England, about south west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers River Plym to the east and River Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound....
, Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Poole

Poole is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester, Dorset, and Bournemouth adjoins Poole to the east....
to Santander

Santander, Cantabria

The port city of Santander is the capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria situated on the north coast of Spain between Asturias and the Basque Country ....
provide one of the most convenient ways to see cetaceans in Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an waters, and there are often specialist trips on board.

Volunteers and employees from the use the bridge of the vessel on the P&O

P&O Ferries

P&O Ferries is a constituent company of DP World . P&O Ferries is registered in Dover, Kent.P&O Ferries also operates a number of routes in the Irish Sea under the name P&O Irish Sea....
Portsmouth to Bilbao run to observe and monitor cetacean activity. Many species of whale

Whale

Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphinsmembers, in other words, of the families Oceanic dolphin or River dolphinnor porpoises....
s and dolphin

Dolphin

File:Bottlenose_Dolphin_KSC04pd0178.jpgDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genus....
s can be seen in this area but it is one of the few places where the beaked whale

Beaked whale

A beaked whale is any of at least twenty species of small whale in the Family Ziphiidae. They are one of the least-known families of large mammals: several species have only been described in the last two decades, and it is entirely possible that more remain as yet undiscovered....
s such as the Cuvier's beaked whale

Cuvier's Beaked Whale

Cuvier's Beaked Whale, Ziphius cavirostris is the most widely distributed of all the beaked whales. It is the only member of the genus Ziphius....
have been observed relatively frequently. This is the best study area for beaked whales in the world.

The best areas to see the larger cetaceans are those over deep water off the continental shelf particularly over the Santander Canyon and Torrelavega Canyon in the south of the Bay.

The three-day round trip also gives sightings of good numbers of several species of seabird

Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adaptation to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behavior and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding ecological niche have resulted in similar adaptations....
s, particularly gannets.

The alga Colpomenia peregrina

Colpomenia peregrina

Colpomenia peregrina Hamel is a seaweed not native to the British Isles but recorded in Ireland since 1934. It appears to have been introduced from the Pacific and was first noticed in Europe in 1906 on oyster beds....
was introduced and first noticed by oyster fishermen in the Bay of Biscay in 1906.