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REGIONAL LINKS DIRECTORY

 
 
 

Welcome to the GIN regional links directory.

The regional directory is categorised under nine major geographic regions. Each region contains a list of websites specifically relating to the chosen region.

All websites listed here have been individually chosen based on their quality of content and appropriateness to the specific region they represent. All links contained within this directory are regularly checked to ensure they are currently available and do not lead to broken or missing links. If you do happen to come across a broken link please let us know - email our webmaster describing the offending link and we promise to attend to it at our earliest opportunity.


 
  ANTARCTIC 

The world's coldest and most inaccessible region consists of an ice-covered continent, Antarctica, centred on the South Pole and surrounding this, the vast Southern Ocean, which is largely covered by floating pack ice. The Antarctic is much colder than the Arctic and its only inhabitants are visiting scientists. Various nations claim different parts of the Antarctic mainland. In 1959, twelve nations signed the Antarctic Treaty and agreed that Antarctica should be used for peaceful purposes only.
       

  ARCTIC 

The Arctic is an ocean more or less surrounded by land - just the opposite of the Antarctic, which is a huge land mass surrounded by water. The Arctic region generally refers to a rather large land area round the North Pole but the ocean is nearly five times as large as the Mediterranean and is covered with drifting ice which is sometimes 30m thick. Between Greenland and the Canadian mainland is Baffin Island, together with many smaller islands.
       

  BALTIC 

An inland sea of northern Europe, the Baltic is nearly 1,600km in length. It lies between Sweden on the west, Finland and the former USSR on the east, and Poland and Germany on the south. It has three main gulfs - the Gulf of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga. Navigation in the Baltic has never been easy. The Danish channels and many of the harbours are too shallow for larger ships and wide areas are regularly frozen over for two months of the winter.
       

  CARIBBEAN 

The Caribbean Sea is bounded by the West Indies, the east coast of Central America and the north coast of South America. It is nearly 2,400km long and from 650 to 1,100km wide. The many islands surrounding the Caribbean are really the peaks of mountains submerged beneath the sea. After the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, this sea became one of the busiest waterways in the world, lying on the main route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
       

 
  INDIAN OCEAN 

  African Ocean Portal 
  Agulhas and Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystems (ASCLME) Project 
  AUF Indian Ocean Bureau 
  Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem Project 
  Bay of Bengal Programme 
  Collaborative Actions for Sustainable Tourism (COAST) 
  Coral Reef Degradation in the Indian Ocean (CORDIO) 
  DLIST Agulhas and Somali 
  Foundation for the Protection of Marine Megafauna 
  Indian Ocean Climate Initiative 
  Indian Ocean Climatology & Oceanography Gateway 
  Indian Ocean Commission 
  Indian Ocean Experiment 
  Indian Ocean Portal 
  Indian Ocean Research Group 
  Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation 
  Indian Ocean Tuna Commission 
  Indian Ocean-Southeast Asian Marine Turtle MoU 
  IOC Acclimate 
  IOC Agriculture & Biodiversity Portal 
  IOC Environment & Natural Resources Portal 
  IOC Islands Project 
  Ocean Data and Information Network of Africa 
  SAARC Coastal Zone Management Centre 
  Sea Sense 
  Seabiome Indian Ocean 
  SeaweedAfrica 
  Society for Indian Ocean Studies 
  South West Indian Ocean Fisheries Project 
  UN Agencies in Mauritius and Seychelles 
  UNEP Nairobi Convention 
  Western Indian Ocean Fisheries Database 
  Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association 
       

  MEDITERRANEAN 

The Mediterranean Sea is almost landlocked, being joined with the open Atlantic Ocean only by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar. It lies between Europe and Africa and is more than 3,220km long. The north side of the Mediterranean is broken up by the Adriatic and Aegean seas as well as by the peninsulas of Italy and Greece. Most of the islands are in the northern part of the sea. In 1869 the Suez Canal was opened, thus making the Mediterranean the shortest sea route between Europe and the East.
       

  NORTH ATLANTIC 

The northern half of the world's second largest ocean is rich in islands, varied coastline and tributary seas. On the west are the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay. To the east are the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. As well as purely oceanic islands there are those which rise from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, including the Azores. Other islands such as The Canaries and Madeira rise from Africa's continental margins.
       

  PACIFIC 

The Pacific is the largest and deepest of all the oceans with an area of 165 million square kilometres, an area greater than that of all the world's lands put together. At its greatest width the Pacific measures 17,220km. It extends from the Bering Straits of the Arctic Circle, to Cape Adare, Antarctica, a distance of 15,450km. There are very few islands in the eastern Pacific. Its northern and western borders are fringed with chains of islands including The Aleutians, The Kurils and the Ryukus. The Inner Pacific islands are divided into three main groups - Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
       

  SOUTHEAST ASIA 

Southeast Asia is the name for the peninsular area of the Asian continent that lies between India and China, and stretches south along a chain of islands towards Australia. The countries of mainland Southeast Asia are Malaysia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, Thailand and Singapore. Further south lies insular (island) Southeast Asia. This is made up of thousands of islands containing the countries of the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and East Timor.