Adriatic Sea

The Adriatic Sea, in short, the Adriatic Sea (Latin Mare Adriaticum; Italian Mare Adriatico, Croatian, Bosnian and serbokroatisches Cyrillic Jadransko more or shortly Jadran; Serbian Cyrillic Јадранско море / Јадран; Slovenian morje Jadransko; Albanian Deti Adriatic or short Adriatiku ) is the elongated northern side of the basin of the Mediterranean, the Adriatic after the city in Italy ( Rovigo ) is named. The Adriatic everything is expected, which is located north of the Strait of Otranto. It separates the Apennine Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula.

Riparian countries are Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Neum at the place ), Montenegro and Albania.

Location, size and climate

The Adriatic Sea is from northwest to southeast 820 km long and an average of 160 km wide. The greatest width is about 220 kilometers. It covers an area of ​​132,000 square kilometers and is in the north basin ( north of the promontory of Monte Gargano ) average between 40 and 200 meters deep. The southern part is much deeper and reaches between Durres and Bari, with 1,260 meters of its greatest depth. The southern end of the sea forms the Strait of Otranto, where the distance between Italy and Albania is 71 kilometers. Its salt content is at the mouth of the major rivers around 2.5% ( surface water) and take south to 3.9%.

The northern portion, the upper Adriatic Sea, is flat with numerous lagoons. The Italian coast is from the Po Delta southward increasingly mountainous, with the coastline itself is relatively straight and practically without islands. Only the location in Puglia Gargano Mountains extends as a peninsula into some 50 kilometers to the east into the Adriatic. The east coast, in the predominantly Croatian peninsula Istria protrudes is mountainous and heavily structured with numerous islands. The main part of the East Coast takes the südkroatische landscape Dalmatia.

The Croatian coast is dissected rich and forms over a thousand islands.

The Bay of Kotor in Montenegro is about 30 kilometers, the largest of the sea. The extreme southeast is again flat and marshy.

South of Shkoder in Albania extends along the coast of the Gulf Drin and also further south a broad lowland with many, partly pristine sandy beaches. In many estuaries is elongated lagoons have formed. In the bay of Vlora, the Adriatic coast ends, south of the town of Vlora captures the Albanian Riviera along to the Ionian Sea.

The climate is characterized by very hot, little rain and dry summers and mild, sometimes rainy and humid winters. In the summer prevail stable, slightly windy weather conditions. In winter, with the Adriatic region is under the influence of low-pressure systems from the Atlantic. This leads occasionally to warm southerly winds ( Scirocco ) and cold north winds ( Bora / Bura ).

Tourism and Environmental Protection

Economically, tourism is for the littoral states of importance. Many beach resorts on this sea are well known throughout Europe, some even worldwide. Along the east coast runs the Adriatic coastal road.

The ocean current runs along the east coast to the north and along the west coast to the south. Along the East Coast a few karst rivers flow into the Adriatic Sea and the burden of pollution is lower than along the west coast. Since the northern Adriatic Sea is a " dead end," there is relatively little exchange of water with the rest of the Mediterranean. For 30 years, the industry disturbs the delicate balance of the ocean current from the north, the tributaries from the mountains and the filtered sea water from the soil, the Po River discharges annually 50 billion cubic meters of highly contaminated water in the western Adriatic side (tin, zinc, lead, chromium, copper, arsenic, mercury and oil), total transported to the river today twice as many nutrient salts such as ten years ago.

In contrast, the water quality in 2004 was at a appointed by the ADAC test off the Po delta on Italy and on the Croatian coast mostly good to very good.

Increasingly gets the Adriatic Sea in the view point of environmental protection and the possible climate change. The most visible signs are the increase of tropical fish stocks and increasing algae and jellyfish plagues. 2007 warned the then Italian Environment Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio that global warming and pollution, " the Adriatic make it a closed basin in which there is no life already in 150 meters depth ." In September 2007, the Adriatic was a theme of the first Italian national conference on global warming in Rome.

Ports

Important Adriatic ports:

  • In Italy: Trieste, Venice, including the port of Chioggia, Ravenna, Ancona, Pescara, Ortona, Bari, Brindisi
  • In Slovenia: Koper
  • In Croatia: Pula, Rijeka, Ploce, Zadar, Split, Dubrovnik
  • In Montenegro: Kotor, Bar
  • In Albania: Durres, Vlora

Islands

  • Croatia: Brač, Cres, Ciovo, Dugi Otok, Hvar, Ilovik, Is, Jabuka, Korčula, Krk, Lastovo, Lopud, Lošinj, Mljet, Pag, Premandura Olib, Rab, Sipan, Susak, Vis, Unije and many others. Overall, it is one of 1,246 islands in the Adriatic. Only 47 of them are inhabited.
  • Bosnia - Herzegovina: Školj Mali and Veliki Školj
  • Montenegro: Sveti Stefan, Sveti Nikola, and the group of small islands in the Bay of Kotor: Mamula, Sveti Marko, Ostrvo Cvijeca ("Island of Flowers" ), as well as Our Lady of the Rocks and Sveti Đorđe before Perast ( List of islands in Montenegro)
  • Albania: Sazan before the Karaburun peninsula near the Strait of Otranto
  • Italy: Tremiti Islands, north of the Gargano Peninsula
Serbian language List of islands of Croatia Bay of Vlorë San Michele al Tagliamento Kavajë Velipojë Port of Trieste Bar (Montenegro) Ist (island) Jabuka (island) Sveti Nikola Island Sveti Marko Island Miholjska prevlaka List of islands of Montenegro Isole Tremiti Joseph Partsch Integrated Authority File
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