Sargasso Sea
[2][3] It is distinguished from other parts of the Atlantic Ocean by its characteristic brown Sargassum seaweed and often calm blue water.
It lies between 20° and 35° north and 40° and 70° west and is approximately 1,100 kilometres (600 nautical miles) wide by 3,200 km (1,750 nmi) long.
[4] It is also a body of water that has captured the public imagination, and so is seen in a wide variety of literary and artistic works and in popular culture.
[9] The 1920–1922 Dana expeditions, led by Johannes Schmidt, determined that the European eel's breeding sites were in the Sargasso Sea.
[10][11] The sea has played a role in a number of other pioneering research efforts, including William Beebe and Otis Barton's 1932 dive where they conducted observations of animals and radio broadcasts, John Swallow's work on the Swallow float in the late 1950s, the discovery of Prochlorococcus by a team of researchers in the 1980s, and various oceanographic data gathering programs such as those of Henry Stommel.
[12] In July 1969, British businessman and amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst disappeared after his yacht became mired in the Sargasso Sea.
Eventually, Crowhurst wound up drifting in the Sargasso Sea, where he deteriorated psychologically, filling his logbooks with metaphysical speculation and delusional comments.
The larvae of these species hatch within the sea, and as they grow they travel to Europe or the East Coast of North America.
[24] Millions of European eel babies are born there and then make a three-year journey back to UK waters; many seabird species also fly and feed across it on their way to Britain.
The Sargasso Sea, like many unique ocean ecosystems, is under various threats, such as industrial-scale fishing, plastic waste pollution, oil drilling, and deep-sea mining.
[37][38] Ezra Pound's Portrait d'une Femme opens with the line: "Your mind and you are our Sargasso Sea", suggesting that the woman addressed in the poem is a repository of trivia and disconnected facts.
[39] The Sargasso Sea features in classic fantasy stories by William Hope Hodgson, such as his novel The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" (1907), Victor Appleton's Don Sturdy novel Don Sturdy in the Port of Lost Ships: Or, Adrift in the Sargasso Sea, and several related short stories.
Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) by Jean Rhys is inspired by Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and gives Bertha Mason's history, experiences and perspective.
Batman and Robin are welcomed by the pirate Jolly Roger, Erik of Norway and Flavius from ancient Rome.
