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The Celebes Sea (or the Sulawesi Sea ) of the western Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
 is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago
Sulu Archipelago

Sulu Archipelago is an island chain in the southwest Philippines. It is considered to be part of Moroland by the local independence movement. With the centers in Maimbung and Jolo, Sulu, the whole of this archipelago, Palawan and coastal regions of the Zamboanga Peninsula and North Borneo used to be part of the thalassocracy Sultanate of Sul...
 and Sulu Sea
Sulu Sea

The Sulu Sea is a large sea in the southwestern area of the Philippines. It is separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan, and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago....
 and Mindanao Island of the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, on the east by the Sangihe Islands
Sangihe Islands

The Sangihe Islands is a group of islands in northern Indonesia, northeast of Sulawesi in the Celebes Sea, roughly half way between Sulawesi and Mindanao, in the Philippines....
 chain, on the south by Sulawesi
Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands....
, and on the west by Kalimantan
Kalimantan

In most languages in the world, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while for Indonesians, the name "Kalimantan" usually refers to the whole island of Borneo....
 in Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
 . The Sea is in the form of a huge basin, and plunges as deep as 20,300 feet (6,200 m).






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Celebes See
The Celebes Sea (or the Sulawesi Sea ) of the western Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
 is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago
Sulu Archipelago

Sulu Archipelago is an island chain in the southwest Philippines. It is considered to be part of Moroland by the local independence movement. With the centers in Maimbung and Jolo, Sulu, the whole of this archipelago, Palawan and coastal regions of the Zamboanga Peninsula and North Borneo used to be part of the thalassocracy Sultanate of Sul...
 and Sulu Sea
Sulu Sea

The Sulu Sea is a large sea in the southwestern area of the Philippines. It is separated from the South China Sea in the northwest by Palawan, and from the Celebes Sea in the southeast by the Sulu Archipelago....
 and Mindanao Island of the Philippines
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
, on the east by the Sangihe Islands
Sangihe Islands

The Sangihe Islands is a group of islands in northern Indonesia, northeast of Sulawesi in the Celebes Sea, roughly half way between Sulawesi and Mindanao, in the Philippines....
 chain, on the south by Sulawesi
Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands....
, and on the west by Kalimantan
Kalimantan

In most languages in the world, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while for Indonesians, the name "Kalimantan" usually refers to the whole island of Borneo....
 in Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
 . The Sea is in the form of a huge basin, and plunges as deep as 20,300 feet (6,200 m). It extends 420 miles (675 km) north-south by 520 miles (837 km) east-west and has a total surface area of 110,000 square miles (280,000 kmē). The sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait
Makassar Strait

Makassar Strait is a strait between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi in Indonesia. To the north it joins the Celebes Sea, while to the south it meets the Java Sea....
 into the Java Sea
Java Sea

The Java Sea is a large shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf. It was formed as sea levels rose at the end of the last ice age. The Java Sea lies between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south; Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east....
.

The Celebes Sea is a piece of an ancient ocean basin that formed 42 million years ago in a setting far from any land mass. By 20 million years ago, crustal movement had pushed the Celebes basin close enough to the Indonesia
Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
n and Philippine
Philippines

The Philippines, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines, is a country in Southeast Asia with Manila as its capital city. It comprises 7,107 islands in the western Pacific Ocean....
 volcano
Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
es to receive volcanic debris. By 10 million years ago the Celebes Sea was inundated with continental debris, including coal
Coal

Coal is a readily combustion black or brownish-black sedimentary rock. The harder forms, such as anthracite, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure....
, which was shed from a rapidly growing young mountain on Borneo and the basin had docked against Eurasia.

The border between the Celebes and the Sulu Sea is at the Sibutu-Basilan Ridge. Strong ocean current
Ocean current

An ocean current is continuous, directed movement of ocean water. The currents are generated from the forces acting upon the water like the Earth's rotation, the wind, the temperature, salinity differences and the tide....
s, deep sea trench
Oceanic trench

The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor. They are also the deepest parts of the ocean floor....
es and seamount
Seamount

A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of 1,000?4,000 meters depth....
s, combined with active volcanic islands, result in complex oceanographic features.

Celebes Sea pirates


The Celebes Sea has somewhat attained an international notoriety for its pirates who prey not only on small time fishermen but also giant container ships. Nowadays, these pirates have high-tech weapons and equipment like radar
Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
 and GPS navigation devices and ride on high-speed motorboats.

Maitumcoastal

Marine life

The Celebes Sea is home to a wide variety of fish and aquatic creatures. The tropical setting and warm clear waters permit it to harbor about 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building coral
Coral

Corals are marine organisms from the class Anthozoa and exist as small sea anemone?like polyps, typically in colonies of many identical individuals....
s, which grow as some of the most bio-diverse coral reefs in the world, and an impressive array of marine life, including 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, sea turtle
Sea turtle

Sea turtles are turtles found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean. There are seven living species of sea turtles: Flatback Sea Turtle, Green Sea Turtle, Hawksbill turtle, Kemp's Ridley, leatherback sea turtle, Loggerhead Sea Turtle and Olive Ridley Sea Turtle....
s, manta ray
Manta ray

The manta ray , is the largest of the batoidea, with the largest known specimen having been more than 7.6 m across, with a weight of about 2,300 kg ....
s, eagle ray
Eagle ray

Eagle rays are a family of mostly large batoidea living in the open ocean rather than at the bottom of the sea.The taxonomy of this group is uncertain; it is placed either in the order Myliobatiformes or Rajiformes....
s, barracuda
Barracuda

The barracuda is a ray-finned fish known for its large size and fearsome appearance. Its body is long, fairly compressed, and covered with small, smooth scale ....
, marlin
Marlin

Marlin, Istiophoridae, is a member of a group of marine fish known as "billfish", and is closely linked to the freshwater trout. A marlin has an elongated body, a spear-like snout, and a long rigid dorsal fin, which extends forwards to form a crest....
 and other reef and pelagic species. Tuna
Tuna

Tuna are several species of ocean-dwelling fish in the family Scombridae, mostly in the genus Thunnus. Tunas are fast swimmers?they have been clocked at 70 km/h ?and include several species that are warm-blooded....
 and yellowfin tuna
Yellowfin tuna

The yellowfin tuna is a type of tuna found in open waters of tropical and subtropical seas worldwide. It is an epipelagic fish ranging in the top 100 m of the water column....
 are also abundant.

In addition to high abundance of fish caught in the Celebes sea, this sea also yields other aquatic products like sea tang.

Commercial significance

An important transport route for trade and commerce in the region. It is a popular site for deep sea diving
Diving

Diving refers to the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard of a certain height. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games....
 and luxury ocean cruising.

See also

  • Davao Gulf
    Davao Gulf

    Davao Gulf is a Headlands and bays found in Mindanao in the Philippines. Davao Gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from Celebes Sea. It is surrounded by all four Provinces of the Philippines in the Davao Region....
  • Moro Gulf
    Moro Gulf

    The Moro Gulf is a Headlands and bays in Mindanao in the Philippines. It is part of Celebes Sea and is surrounded by the Zamboanga Peninsula and the central part of Mindanao....
  • Sarangani Bay
    Sarangani Bay

    Sarangani Bay is a bay located in the Philippines.The Sarangani is named after the bay.Link to provincial government website with facts, history, maps, photographs:...
  • Maitum, Sarangani
    Maitum, Sarangani

    Maitum is a 3rd class Philippine municipality in the Philippine province of Sarangani province, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 35,536 people in 7,640 households, and a land area of 324.35 km?....


External links

  • - Public outreach site for explorations sponsored by the Office of Ocean Exploration.
  • - A rich collection of images, video and .