English Channel

Why in news?

• Top European migration officials held an emergency meeting Sunday in the French port of Calais to find ways to better fight migrant smuggling, after 27 people died trying to cross the English Channel to Britain in an overcrowded inflatable boat.

English Channel:

• English Channel is also called The Channel
• It is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France and links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end.
• With an area of some 29,000 square miles (75,000 square km), it is the smallest of the shallow seas covering the continental shelf of Europe.
• The water is rich in warm- and cold-water plankton.

???????

Strategic significance:

• The Channel was a key factor in Britain becoming a naval superpower and has been utilised by Britain as a natural defence mechanism through which they halted many would-be invasions, such as the Napoleonic Wars and those of Adolf Hitler in World War II.

PRELIMS QUESTION

Consider the following pairs:

1. English Channel   : Atlantic Ocean

2. Torres Strait         : Mediterranean Sea

3. Bering Strait         : Pacific Ocean

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 2 only

(d) 1 and 3 only

Answer