Talk:Bass Strait

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Contents 1 Incorrect dimensions? 2 George Bass 3 Some images for this article 4 Bass Strait Triangle 5 Bass Strait Passenger Ships 6 Ocean names

[edit] Incorrect dimensions?

Strong currents between the Antarctic driven Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea provide a strait of powerful, wild storm waves. To illustrate its wild strength, Bass Strait is both twice as wide and twice as rough as the English Channel.

I'm a bit confused by the last sentence. This article and others refer to Bass Strait as measuring 322 km in length and 240 km wide at its narrowest point. The article on the English Channel refers to that water body as measuring 536 km in length and 34 km wide at its narrowest, 240 km wide its widest.Plasma east 09:25, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] George Bass

i am kassandra joharia bass, my great grandfather came, with his parents to the united states in the very late 1800's, my mother who is now 68 years old, said that he used to make boomerangs and curved little animals out of od, she said he told them that he came from the bering straits, down through canada and into the ohio valley. the only connection i have here are the boomerangs and the last name bass, if anyone has any information on willie lee bass please e mail me, we are a people of dark skin and blue eyes our hair color ranges from black to silver white, i understand that these are some of the genetic make ups of the aborigine people. thank you

Well, I'm not sure if this will help you, but George Bass (who Bass Strait was named after) was a european, not an aboriginal. -- Chuq 23:03, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Some images for this article

I don't know about copyright for these images, and I don't know how to put them on the page. But here they are:

http://img141.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bassstrait1sb.jpg (Google Earth sattelite image) http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bassstarait9wy.jpg (Road map, original image was found on Google Images)

These images are copyrighted and so cannot be included on the page. However you can add links to the images. Note that the second link you give above seems to be a broken link. Richard W.M. Jones 09:56, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

I'll endeavour to get some World Wind screenshots of the region. -- Chuq 00:03, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bass Strait Triangle

I notice Bass Strait Triangle links here. I've lived in Tasmania for 28 years and have never heard of it. Anyone else familiar with it? -- Chuq 12:19, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

This Melburnian has never heard of it either. Wow, one mysterious disappearance?!. Asa01 20:35, 8 August 2006 (UTC)

Should go with the disappearance - cut! SatuSuro 03:29, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bass Strait Passenger Ships

Anyone? Just started S.S. Loongana due to its connection with the 1912 North Mount Lyell Disaster but there seems nothing in this article that might correlate. Is history of australian coastal shipping hiding somehwere?SatuSuro 09:32, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ocean names

Interesting article. I see only one facet upon which Australian WP editors (or WP editors from any actual locality) do not have an "authoritative leg up." Australians, perhaps unfortunately due to the common usage on Australian maps, no more "get to decide" the name of the oceans of the world than do the people of, say, Chile, who refuse to use "Pacific" and have their own name for it on all their maps. The group that does is the IHO (see the WP Southern Ocean article for references....this article should not be cluttered with IHO references, I should think!) .

For good or bad (bad if you're a fan of Australian maps and terminology), they have decided that Australia is a continent sitting in the Indian Ocean, with the Pacific along its eastern side. They publish this with carefully delineated borders for these water bodies (see that mentioned in the WP Great Australian Bight article. So, certainly not for Australian use, but for a worldwide English enclopedia, its "Indian Ocean", not "Southern Ocean." The IHO very clearly ruled (after a vote of member nations) that the "Southern Ocean" stops at 60 degrees south, and north of that its the Indian Ocean. Not debatable, unless you want to try to overturn the worldwide and WP-wide acceptance of the IHO as the authority on these matters. Water bodies that Australia does not share with other nations are a different matter, of course. This is how world geographers (and the IHO) avoid having several names for various sides of various oceans. Having done the South Coast Track in Tasmania and looking southwest off the cliffs (an amazing place; huge old growth trees, remote beaches) and saying something to a local about the big Indian Ocean waves and getting an incredulous stare, I know this doesn't make sense locally.....But it's an international encyclopedia.DLinth 18:56, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Is Geoscience Australia or any other Australian agency a member of the International Hydrographic Organization? That article does not list its members, and Southern Ocean does not list the dissenting members. It appears that Southern_Ocean#History says that only 14 countries voted in favour of using the name "Southern Ocean" and defining it to be no further north than 60° South. That's not many countries, even out of only 68 members of the IHO. Neither article says what countries are bound by the decision, or whether it needs to be (or has been) ratified by their respective governments. Just because the IHO has decreed something maynot make it so (everywhere). --Scott Davis ^Talk 09:04, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Further research: Australia is a member of the IHO, represented by the Royal Australian Navy Hydrographic Service. A search for "Southern Ocean" in their Maritime Gazetteer of Australia (MGA) Search yields 34 results, only 6 of which are south of 60° South latitude. Particularly relevant to this discussion is the third match, at 35°0'S, 115°0'E, from chart Aus335 near Cape Leeuwin. I think the statement that Bass Strait and the Great Australian Bight are in the Indian and not Southern Ocean is far from universally true. --Scott Davis ^Talk 09:52, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Times Atlas (UK, #1 world atlas), CIA World Fact Book, US Board on Geographic Names, etc., etc., and nearly all non-Australian atlases and maps strictly show the Southern Ocean as below 60 degrees lat. All sources go on and on about it being defined as an ocean due to its hydro characteristics....a cold, polar current circling Antarctica. So 35 degrees south is particularly far "off the charts" in the world's view....that's the same lat. as the Mediterranean! (for a "polar" ocean!??) Seems like all around WP, most atlases, most world maps, the IHO is being given the first and last word on this. DLinth 19:32, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I propose we centralise this discussion to Talk:Australia#Ocean_names for now. --Scott Davis ^Talk 10:15, 21 September 2007 (UTC)