Bay

[citation needed] The land surrounding a bay often reduces the strength of winds and blocks waves.

In some cases, bays have beaches, which "are usually characterized by a steep upper foreshore with a broad, flat fronting terrace".

[5] Bays were significant in the history of human settlement because they provided easy access to marine resources like fisheries.

[6] Later they were important in the development of sea trade as the safe anchorage they provide encouraged their selection as ports.

[7] The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea defines a bay as a well-marked indentation in the coastline, whose penetration is in such proportion to the width of its mouth as to contain land-locked waters and constitute more than a mere curvature of the coast.

The bay at Castletown, Isle of Man .
The bay of Baracoa , Cuba
Two adjacent bays at San Sebastián , Spain , one enclosed (left, with an island at the mouth) and one open (right)
The Vyborg Bay on the Gulf of Finland