Tasman Sea

The Tasman Sea is the broad, turbulent arm of the South Pacific that separates Australia from New Zealand — the water that Australians and New Zealanders affectionately call the Ditch. Roaring winds of the Southern Ocean sweep across it, making it one of the rougher crossings in the world and a perennial test for the aviators and sailors who first bridged the two countries. Named for the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman, it is a sea defined by distance, weather, and the rivalry and kinship of the lands on either shore.

Spanning about 2.3 million square kilometres and roughly 2,000 kilometres across, the Tasman Sea reaches depths of about 5,943 metres in its central basin. The warm East Australian Current sweeps down its western side — the current made famous as the marine highway in Finding Nemo — while colder sub-Antarctic water pushes up from the south, and the boundary between them spins off eddies that shape the region's weather and fisheries. Westerly gales born in the Southern Ocean give the sea its fearsome reputation for storms and heavy swells.

For the Māori and Aboriginal Australians the sea was a vast barrier rather than a route, and it kept the two peoples apart for centuries. Tasman charted its eastern edge in 1642, the first European to sight New Zealand, and in the twentieth century pioneering pilots like Charles Kingsford Smith braved its weather to link the nations by air. Today the Tasman is crossed daily by flights and shipping between two closely tied economies, and its currents and warming waters are watched closely for their effect on the climate of the southwest Pacific.

• Coral Sea
  The South Pacific sea that holds the Great Barrier Reef adjacent to
• Pacific Ocean
  Earth's largest and deepest ocean drains to
• Oceania
  The smallest continent, built around Australia and the Pacific isles located on
• Tasmania
  Australia's wild island state, a refuge of ancient forests and rare creatures nearby