The Mozambique Channel is the longest in the world

A strait is a relatively narrow section of the ocean or sea, which divides two segments of land (islands or even continents) and connects adjacent water spaces. The Mozambique Channel is the longest in the world. These kind of natural ferries connecting the seas and oceans play an important role in trade relations between countries.

The Mozambique Channel on the world map

In the western waters of the Indian Ocean lies the largest waterway that separates Africa and the island of Madagascar. The Mozambique strait reaches a length of 1760 km, a width of 422 km to 925 km, and its depth varies from 117 m to 3292 m. The greatest depth is recorded in the northern and southern parts, in the middle it is about 2.4 km.

If you look at the Mozambique Channel on the map, you can see the Comoros in the north. Along their shores there are smaller islands and reefs. One of the characteristic features is a fairly constant flow with the north-west direction at a speed of about 1.5 knots. The height of the tides sometimes reaches 5 m.

Who first opened the strait between Africa and Madagascar?

Long before the Europeans, the longest strait was actively used by the Arabs who traded with the inhabitants of Madagascar, but the question of a pioneer of European origin was debatable. Some experts call the name Vasco da Gama as the first who crossed it. There is another point of view, according to which the discoverer should be Marco Polo, who even two centuries before Vasco da Gama told the world about the find.

origin of name

Interesting facts are connected with the name "Mozambique". The ancient Arabs called it al-Qumr, which means that the name did not come from them. When Vasco da Gama traveled, the country of Mozambique was not yet, and in its place was the country of Monomotapa.

Some scholars associate the origin of the name of both the state and the strait itself with an amusing incident from history when the Portuguese mutilated the name of the head of the port town, combining it with the name of the country - Musa-ben-Mbika. An unusual combination has taken hold, and the emerged Mozambique strait on the map is so still called.

Picturesque coast of the Mozambique Channel

Incredible beauty of the coast. Golden sandy beaches are surrounded by gentle hills, which open a chic view of the longest strait in the world. The animal and plant world is also very diverse, the nature of these places is unique, there are very rare species of fish. The Mozambique Channel is strewn with underwater volcanoes, along the coasts of Mozambique and Madagascar, you can find a large number of volcanic islands, underwater turning into picturesque coral reefs.

For example, in its waters in 1938 they discovered a unique species - the bony fish of the Celakantha (Latimeria chalumnae), which lived on the planet 50-70 million years ago and is now considered to have long been extinct. There is this living fossil mainly in the direction of the coast of South Africa. According to rough estimates, it is much older than the dinosaurs themselves, and even here there is a manta ray. These and other interesting inhabitants of a place called the Mozambique Strait are of great interest to diving enthusiasts.

A successful attempt to cross the Mozambique Channel

Two athletes and excellent swimmer from South Africa, Thane Williams and Johnny Prudfoot, in the spring of 2014 made a huge swim 450 km from Mozambique to Madagascar. This extravagant event had noble goals: collecting money for a special fund to help children. Thain and Johnno returned to their homeland as real heroes.

Crossing without anyone's help the place where the Mozambique strait is located was not the easiest task, but the mission was successfully accomplished. The water barrier, part of the Indian Ocean and sandwiched between Madagascar and Africa in the southeast, was conquered. The nature-created canal, which is about 460 km in the narrowest place between the town of Angoc in Mozambique and Tambohorano in Madagascar, was able to swim two seemingly ordinary people with ambitious goals and a noble mission.

Marine Strait Ecology

The depths of the Mozambique Channel contain a large number of tuna and other marine fish species, as well as lobsters, deep-sea shrimps, crabs and crabs. Among the mammals are the Pacific bottlenose dolphin, the striped dolphin, the humpback whale and the short-finned grind. The greatest focus of cetaceans is observed in the vicinity of Mayotte.

Fishing is mainly carried out by local fishermen, and recently there has been a trend to reduce fish stocks. There are other important environmental problems, among them: the impact on the marine environment of contaminated water as a result of the use of phosphate and nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture, the ingress of various pesticides and herbicides into waterways.

History of the Mozambique Strait

Only a small part of the written sources that tell of the time of the Portuguese colonial era at the beginning of the 16th century in the coastal zones of the Mozambique Channel has survived. It is known that one side of the natural channel was occupied by local African peoples for a long time, the fact is also that Muslim merchants and seafarers arrived here from the north in the period from 800 to 1000 AD.

The coastline of Mozambique was developed earlier than from the side of Madagascar, and the density of the population of the coast of Africa several times exceeded the number of inhabitants of the island.