Celtic Sea

The Celtic Sea is part of the Atlantic Ocean near the southern coast of Ireland. It is bordered to the north by Saint George's Channel and includes areas such as the Bristol Channel, the English Channel, and the Bay of Biscay. Lands around the Celtic Sea include parts of Wales, Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany in France.

The sea’s edges are defined by the continental shelf, which drops off quickly into deeper water. It also contains the Iroise Sea, located off the coast of Brittany. One notable group of islands in the Celtic Sea is the Isles of Scilly, a small archipelago made up of several tiny islands.

History

The Celtic Sea is named after the Celtic people who lived nearby. In 1921, E. W. L. Holt suggested this name during a meeting of experts from Great Britain, France, and Ireland. Before that, the northern part was called Saint George's Channel and the southern part was part of the Southwest Approaches. They wanted one name because of the similar marine biology, geology, and hydrology in the area.

The name was first used in France and later became common in English-speaking countries. In 1957, a writer named Édouard Le Danois noted that even ocean experts rarely used the name Celtic Sea. Over time, scientists and oil companies began using it. By 1963, it appeared in a British book, although some maps and people on Great Britain’s western coast still used a different name.

Seabed

The seabed under the Celtic Sea is called the Celtic Shelf, part of Europe’s continental shelf. In the northeast, the water is about 90 to 100 meters deep. It gets deeper as you move toward Saint George's Channel. There are sand ridges pointing southwest, separated by deeper troughs. These ridges were formed by tides when the sea level was lower.

Some oil and gas has been found in the Celtic Sea. The Kinsale Head gas field helped to meet Ireland’s gas needs in the 1980s and 1990s. Because the water is too deep for regular wind turbines, the area could support large floating wind farms. TotalEnergies is planning a project that could produce almost 100 MW of power.

Ecology

The Celtic Sea has many fish, and people catch a lot of them each year.

Four kinds of sea animals often live there: minke whale, bottlenose dolphin, short-beaked common dolphin, and harbor porpoise. In the past, the sea also had many marine mammals.

Limits

The Celtic Sea is part of the Atlantic Ocean near the southern coast of Ireland. It has no land borders to separate it from the open ocean to the south and west. One way to describe its edges uses a line that follows the shape of the ocean floor and passes by the island of Ushant, which is near the tip of Brittany.

A definition approved in 1974 by the UK Hydrographer of the Navy describes the Celtic Sea's edges by connecting several points along the coast, including Land's End, Hartland Point, Lundy Island, St. Govan's Head, and Rosslare. It then follows the coast of Ireland to Mizen Head and continues along a line on the ocean floor back toward Ushant.

The International Hydrographic Organization sets the official borders of the Celtic Sea. To the north, it is bounded by the southern edge of the Irish Sea, the coast of Ireland, and a line from Mizen Head. To the west and south, it stretches from a point south of 49°N to a line that marks the edge of the Bay of Biscay. To the east, it is bordered by the western edges of the English Channel and the Bristol Channel.