The Seram Sea or Ceram Sea () is one of several small seas between the scattered islands of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It is a section of the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

with an area of approximately located between

Buru Buru (formerly spelled Boeroe, Boro, or Bouru) is the third largest island within the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon Island, Ambon and Seram Island, Seram island ...

and

Seram Seram (formerly spelled Ceram; also Seran or Serang) is the largest and main island of Maluku province of Indonesia, despite Ambon Island's historical importance. It is located just north of the smaller Ambon Island and a few other adjacent i ...

, which are two of the islands once called the South Moluccas. These islands are the native habitat of plants long coveted for their use as

spice In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

s, such as

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

s, and

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...

corns, and the seas surrounding them were busy shipping routes. The Seram Sea is also the habitat of several species of tropical goby and many other fish. Like many other small Indonesian seas, the Seram Sea is rocky and very tectonically active.

Extent

The

International Hydrographic Organization The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) (French: ''Organisation Hydrographique Internationale'') is an intergovernmental organization representing hydrography. the IHO comprised 102 member states. A principal aim of the IHO is to ...

(IHO) defines the Seram Sea as being one of the waters of the East Indian Archipelago. The IHO defines its limits as follows:

''On the North and Northeast.'' A line from Tanjong Dehekolano, the Eastern extreme of the Soela Sula">Sula_Islands.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Sula Islands">Sula/nowiki> Islands to the Western extreme of Obira">Obi, along its Southern coast to Tanjung Serammaloleo its Eastern extreme, thence through Tobalai, Kekeh, Pisang and Kofiau Islands to Tanjong Sele (), the Western point of New Guinea, down the coast to Karufa (). ''On the Southeast.'' A line from Karufa, New Guinea, to the Southeastern extreme of pulau Adi, thence to tanjung Borang, the Northern point of pulau Nuhuyut /nowiki>Kai Besar">Kai_Besar.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Kai Besar">/nowiki>Kai Besar/nowiki> (). ''On the Southwest and South.'' From the Northern point of pulau Nuhuyut (Groot Kai) through the Watubela and Gorong archipelago">Gorong Islands to the Southeastern extreme of Seram">Ceram, along its Northern shore to Tanjung Tandurubesar , the Northwest point, thence a line to Tanjung Baturuhan, the Northern extreme of Buru [
Buru Buru (formerly spelled Boeroe, Boro, or Bouru) is the third largest island within the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. It lies between the Banda Sea to the south and Seram Sea to the north, west of Ambon Island, Ambon and Seram Island, Seram island ...
], and along the coast to Tanjung Palpetu, the Northwest point of the Island. ''On the West.'' A line from Tanjung Palpetu to Tanjung Waka, the Southern point of pulau Sanana Island, Sanana, through this island to its Northern point, thence across the Mangoli Strait to the South coast of Mangole (Sula Islands) in [].

References

{{List of seas Seas of Indonesia Landforms of Maluku (province) Maluku Islands North Maluku Maritime Southeast Asia Seram Sea

Extent

Further reading

References