A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean , a lake , or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf , sea , sound , or bight . A cove is a small, circular bay with a narrow entrance. A fjord is an elongated bay formed by glacial action. The term embayment is also used for related features , such as extinct bays or freshwater environments.
6-637: Davao Gulf is a gulf situated in the southeastern portion of Mindanao in the Philippines . It has an area of 5,200 km (2,000 sq mi) or about 520,000 hectares. Davao Gulf cuts into the island of Mindanao from the Philippine Sea . It is surrounded by all five provinces in the Davao Region . The largest island in the gulf is Samal Island . Davao City , on the Gulf's west coast,
12-453: A bay unless its area is as large as (or larger than) that of the semi-circle whose diameter is a line drawn across the mouth of that indentation — otherwise it would be referred to as a bight . There are various ways in which bays can form. The largest bays have developed through plate tectonics . As the super-continent Pangaea broke up along curved and indented fault lines, the continents moved apart and left large bays; these include
18-638: A previously unknown predator of the crown-of-thorns starfish , new species records, and new species discoveries underlining the uniqueness of the marine resources in Davao Gulf. Bay A bay can be the estuary of a river, such as the Chesapeake Bay , an estuary of the Susquehanna River . Bays may also be nested within each other; for example, James Bay is an arm of Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada . Some large bays, such as
24-579: Is the largest and busiest port on the gulf. The Bagobo and the Kaagan / Kalagan , who are the indigenous Lumad tribes endemic to Davao, are known inhabitants of the said gulf. The gulf water is regarded as one of the most diverse cetacean habitats in the nation, being home to at least 10 species of toothed whales and dolphins such as sperm whales and beaked whales . Also, whale sharks and sea cows are seen frequently. Furthermore, several ecological phenomena have been observed in Davao Gulf such as
30-579: The Bay of Bengal and Hudson Bay, have varied marine geology . The land surrounding a bay often reduces the strength of winds and blocks waves . Bays may have as wide a variety of shoreline characteristics as other shorelines. In some cases, bays have beaches , which "are usually characterized by a steep upper foreshore with a broad, flat fronting terrace". Bays were significant in the history of human settlement because they provided easy access to marine resources like fisheries . Later they were important in
36-527: The development of sea trade as the safe anchorage they provide encouraged their selection as ports . 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. An indentation, however, shall not be regarded as
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