Neptune's Needle

Arm of the Mediterranean Sea, off SE Europe between Greece and Turkey, with Crete and Rhodes marking its S limit; c.400 miles long and 200 miles wide. Irregular in shape, it is dotted with islands, most of which belong to Greece; these latter include the Sporades, the Cyclades, Samos, Lesbos, Thasos, and the Dodecanese (38º00'N 25º00'E). Greatest depths (over 11,600 ft) E of Crete. The Dardanelles Strait connects the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Declining stocks of fish and sponges are somewhat important, but tourism has become the major economic activity. There has been considerable tension bet. Greece and Turkey over oil deposits discovered here during the 1970s and over territorial water claims (and thus navigation passage).

Sources

Compiler

Peter Richards