70 Fun Facts About North Sea

How many countries border the North Sea?

Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Through which two bodies of water does the North Sea connect to the Atlantic?

It reaches the Baltic through the Skagerrak and Kattegat, the narrow straits around Denmark.

What is the mean depth of the North Sea?

It sits on the continental shelf; only the Norwegian trench, up to 725 metres deep, breaks the pattern.

What is the maximum depth, in metres, of the deep trench that runs from Oslo to north of Bergen?

It runs parallel to Norway's coast from Oslo to north of Bergen and holds the Troll gas field.

The Dogger Bank, the North Sea's finest fishing ground, is what kind of geological feature?

It rises to just 15 to 30 metres below the surface.

The Long Forties and Broad Fourteens are named for their depth in what unit?

Forty fathoms is about 73 metres and fourteen fathoms about 26 metres.

Which two rivers are the largest and most important flowing into the North Sea?

About 185 million people live in the catchment of the rivers that drain into it.

What is the direction of the main water circulation around the edges of the North Sea?

Most ocean current enters through the northwest opening and leaves along the Norwegian coast.

What was the first recorded storm tide flood on the North Sea coast, in 1164?

In its wake the Jadebusen bay on the German coast began to form.

Which legendary city was lost to the sea in the Second Marcellus Flood of 1362?

Chronicles record more than 100,000 deaths in the flood known as the Grote Manndrenke.

The North Sea flood of 1953 cost more than how many lives?

The Netherlands recorded 1,836 deaths, mostly in Zeeland, and England 307.

How many citizens of Hamburg died in the North Sea flood of 1962?

The 1953 and 1962 floods drove the raising of dikes and the shortening of coastlines.

What share of the Netherlands lies below sea level, protected by dikes, dunes and beach flats?

People were building artificial dwelling mounds above flood level as early as 500 BC.

The tsunami-causing Storegga Slides were underwater landslides off which country?

They occurred between 8150 and 6000 BCE and hit Scotland and the Faroes hardest.

What was the magnitude of the 1931 Dogger Bank earthquake, the largest ever recorded in the UK?

It caused a small tsunami that flooded parts of the British coast.

The 25.6-metre Draupner event of 1995 was significant as what?

It struck a gas platform off Norway.

What was the dry landmass called that occupied the North Sea when ice-age sea levels fell?

A trawler dragged up a barbed antler point east of the Wash in 1931, spurring interest in the lost land.

Most evidence of habitation on the submerged land under the southern North Sea dates to which period?

It may have been Europe's most prosperous hunting, fowling and fishing ground.

A bone found while drilling for oil in 2006 proved to be which dinosaur, the deepest fossil ever?

It was 199 to 216 million years old and the first dinosaur find for Norway.

Roughly how many species of fish live in the North Sea?

Cod, haddock, plaice, herring and sandeel are among those fished commercially.

Which fishery ceased in the North Sea in the 1970s due to overfishing?

Herring, cod and plaice may face the same fate.

Which large marine mammals frequented the Orkney Islands through the mid-16th century?

Flamingos and pelicans were also once found on the sea's southern shores.

A grey whale returned to the North Sea in 2010 after an absence of roughly how long?

Whaling drove the Atlantic grey whale extinct; the newcomer probably came through the ice-free Northwest Passage.

What was the English name for the North Sea in common use until the First World War?

Pliny called it Septentrionalis Oceanus, and the Cimbri called it Morimarusa, the 'Dead Sea'.

The name 'North Sea' probably came into English via the Dutch, in contrast with which body of water?

The Zuiderzee, or 'South Sea', lay south of Frisia before it was dammed.

What does the Danish name Vesterhavet mean?

To Denmark the sea lies to the west, though Danes also use Nordsøen.

The Viking Age began in 793 with an attack on which North Sea island monastery?

For the next 250 years Vikings ruled the North Sea in their longships.

Which Baltic-centred trading alliance controlled most North Sea trade in the 13th century?

It lost its dominance in the 16th century as neighbouring states took over its cities.

The first three Anglo-Dutch Wars between 1652 and 1673 ended with what result?

After the Glorious Revolution of 1688 put a Dutch prince on the English throne, power shifted from Amsterdam to London.

In the 1904 Dogger Bank incident, the Russian fleet mistook British trawlers for what?

The trawlers were from Hull; the incident nearly brought Britain into the Russo-Japanese War.

The Battle of Jutland in 1916 was fought off the coast of which country?

Germans call it the Skagerrakschlacht; it was the only full-scale clash of battleships in the First World War.

Who commanded the British Grand Fleet at Jutland?

Beatty led the battlecruisers; Scheer commanded the German High Seas Fleet.

How many British seamen died at Jutland, against 2,551 Germans?

Despite heavier losses, the Royal Navy kept the German surface fleet bottled up for the rest of the war.

The German High Seas Fleet was scuttled at which Orkney anchorage in June 1919?

Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter gave the order after seven months of waiting; the wrecks are now a famous dive site.

Britain handed the island of Heligoland to Germany in what year?

Britain had held it since 1807; in 1947 the Royal Navy's 'Big Bang' demolition created the island's Mittelland.

What was dumped in the North Sea in huge quantities after the Second World War?

Hundreds of thousands of tons went into the sea.

Which company discovered the Ekofisk oil field in 1969?

Its low-sulphur oil began flowing commercially in 1971, first by tanker and then by pipeline to Teesside.

The Sea Gem rig found the first North Sea gas in 1965 in which field, then sank with 13 lives lost?

BP's celebration was short-lived as part of the rig collapsed while it was being moved.

How many people died when the Piper Alpha platform exploded in July 1988?

Operated by Occidental, it remains the deadliest disaster in the North Sea oil industry.

Which North Sea crude serves as a global benchmark price for oil?

Brent was one of the first types of oil extracted from the sea.

The Troll gas field, the North Sea's largest, lies in which feature?

Its 300-metre-plus depth required the enormous Troll A platform.

In January 2018 the North Sea held how many offshore rigs, the most of any region in the world?

British production peaked in 2000 and offshore wind has since grown to replace it.

Which North Sea project, completed in 2002, was one of the first large offshore wind farms?

By 2013 the 630 MW London Array off Britain was the world's largest.

Which is Europe's busiest port, on the North Sea coast?

It was the world's fourth busiest by tonnage in 2013; Bruges-Zeebrugge is Europe's leading ro-ro port.

Which waterway linking the North Sea and Baltic is the most heavily used artificial seaway in the world?

It saves ships about 250 nautical miles around Jutland and averaged 89 ships a day in 2009.

Which Kaiser officially opened the North Sea–Baltic canal in 1895?

It was built between 1887 and 1895 and is 98 kilometres long.

How many commercial vessels pass through the Dover Strait each day?

North Sea shipping lanes are among the busiest in the world.

The Wadden Sea, a UNESCO site, is a shallow region of tidal flats shared by which three countries?

Its Dutch and German parts were inscribed in 2009 and the Danish part in 2014.

The Delta Works were built in the Netherlands in response to which event?

Built from 1954 to 1997, they were named one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The Afsluitdijk, the great dam that created the IJsselmeer, was opened in what year?

Engineer Cornelis Lely, after whom Lelystad is named, had proposed the plan in 1891.

London's Thames Barrier has been operational since what year?

It is closed at high tide when a surge threatens and opened at low tide to restore the river's flow.

The Skagerrak strait is likely named after which Danish town?

'Rak' means 'straight waterway'; the strait links the North Sea to the Kattegat.

Which Scottish coastal town on the North Sea is renowned as the home of golf?

Its links courses draw golfing pilgrims from around the world.

The North Sea Trail links how many countries?

Mudflat hiking, windsurfing and birdwatching are other popular pastimes on its coasts.

What can be picked up as rolled pieces on the east coast of England?

States around the sea also dredge millions of cubic metres of sand and gravel each year.

What is the average summer temperature of the North Sea?

In winter it averages 6 °C, and gales are frequent.

Countries around the North Sea claim exclusive fishing rights within how many nautical miles of shore?

The EU's Common Fisheries Policy coordinates rights among member states and Norway.

About how much unmarketable by-catch is discarded to die in the North Sea each year?

The 1995 total catch of fish and shellfish was about 3.5 million tonnes.

Which convention, managed by a commission of the same name, works to counter human damage to North Sea wildlife?

All North Sea states have also signed the MARPOL 73/78 accords against ship pollution.

Which two straits around the Jutland peninsula connect the North Sea to the Baltic?

The Skagerrak forms the sea's eastern limit under the International Hydrographic Organization definition.

Where do the coastal dikes reach heights of up to 9 metres, flattened to reduce wave erosion?

Dunes are planted with beach grass, Ammophila arenaria, to hold them together.

What is the approximate surface area of the North Sea?

It is more than 970 km long and 580 km wide, holding about 54,000 cubic kilometres of water.

What is the average winter temperature of the North Sea's water?

Averages have been trending upward since 1988, and the winter months bring frequent gales and storms.

What is the average salinity of the North Sea, in grams per litre?

It varies most where fresh water pours in: the Rhine and Elbe estuaries, the Baltic exit and along Norway's coast.

Which German bay began forming after the first recorded storm tide flood of 1164?

A storm tide in 1228 is recorded as killing more than 100,000 people, and the 1362 flood matched that toll.

According to Pliny, the Cimbri called the North Sea 'Morimarusa', meaning what?

Pliny himself used Septentrionalis Oceanus, 'Northern Ocean', one of the earliest recorded names.

Which oil field was the reason for the first pipeline to span the deep trench off Norway's coast?

The same trench holds the sea's largest gas field, reached by the enormous Troll A platform in over 300 metres of water.

Which Belgian port is Europe's leading ro-ro port?

Antwerp, Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Felixstowe are all among the world's top 30 container ports.

Which birds, once seen on the North Sea's southern shores, died out there in the last millennium?

Grey whales were likewise driven to extinction in the Atlantic in the 17th century, while sturgeon and rays have sharply declined.

Roughly how many people live in the North Sea's catchment area?

A large part of Europe's drainage empties into it, including water arriving from the Baltic Sea.