Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean is the world’s third largest ocean. Its total area is 6,85,56,000 square kilometer, with an average depth of 4,028 meter and its deepest trench is at 7,455 meter with its coastal boundary measuring 66,526 kilometer long. Indian Ocean’s water is distributed among Africa, Southern Ocean, and Asia and within Australia. Indian Ocean connects Central and Eastern Africa and Eastern Asia with America and Europe via water route. It carries a large quantity of petroleum and petroleum products from the oil fields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia. Here fishes are caught in large quantities for in-house consumption and also for exports. It is estimated that world’s 40 per cent of total offshore oil production comes from Indian Ocean. The beach sands of this ocean is rich in heavy minerals and other offshore deposits which are being exploited by countries like India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Since there is high traffic of petroleum tankers in the Indian Ocean, hence piracy off the Somali coast has been raising, which has been a threat to international shipping.
