La Guaira Bank

La Guaira Bank

La Guaira Bank ( _es. El Placer de La Guaira) is an underwater ridge that is approximately 12 miles off the coast from the city of La Guaira in Venezuela. The bank is approximately 12 miles long from east to west and 4 miles wide from north to south, and it rises from 140 fathoms in the surrounding area to 50 fathoms. The area provides the structure deep-sea animals, and other organism such as gorgonians, sponges, and coral, require for ocean currents to bring their food to them. Westerly currents flow off the coast of Venezuela, and the bank acts as a barrier to this current, creating an upwelling of nutrients to the ocean surface from deep-water stockpiles. These nutrients fuel an explosion of planktonic plant and animal growth, and attract larger animals such as whales, porpoises, seabirds, and large pelagics such as tuna, sharks, wahoo, dolphinfish, and four different types of marlin. It is considered one of the top sport fishing destinations of the world due to the unusually high numbers of blue marlin, white marlin, sailfish, and spearfish that congregate at different seasons, and are available year round.

The Venezuelan government, understanding the importance of the sport fishing industry to the community as well as the need to protect this fishery, has enacted regulations that protect these waters from industrial commercial fishing by establishing a fifty-mile-long protection area, allowing only small-scale traditional fishing.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Bank of London and Montreal — The Bank of London and Montreal was a joint venture between Bank of London and South America (Bolsa), a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB, and Bank of Montreal. It was established in 1958 and headquartered in Nassau, Bahamas.History*1958 Bank of London… …   Wikipedia

  • Salto del Guairá — ▪ Paraguay       town, eastern Paraguay. It is situated on the right bank of the Paraná River at the Brazil–Paraguay border. Salto del Guairá is the site of one of the earliest colonial settlements in Paraguay, Ciudad Real, which was established… …   Universalium

  • Marlin fishing — Hemingway with his family and four marlin in 1935 Marlin fishing is considered by some game fishermen to be the pinnacle of offshore game fishing, due to the size and power of marlin and the relative rareness and vulnerability of this species. In …   Wikipedia

  • Merritt Boat & Engine Works — Merritt Boat Engine Works, sometimes abbreviated as Merritt s, is a yacht builder and boat yard headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida. Together with Rybovich, Merritt is respected as one of the most historically significant Florida custom sport …   Wikipedia

  • Venezuela — Venezuelan, adj., n. /ven euh zway leuh, zwee /; Sp. /be ne swe lah/, n. a republic in N South America. 22,396,407; 352,143 sq. mi. (912,050 sq. km). Cap.: Caracas. * * * Venezuela Introduction Venezuela Background: Venezuela was one of the three …   Universalium

  • Plata, Río de la — Estuary of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, between Uruguay and Argentina. It is about 170 mi (275 km) long, with a maximum width at its mouth of about 140 mi (220 km); at Montevideo it is about 60 mi (97 km) wide but narrows gradually to the… …   Universalium

  • Paraguay — PRY redirects here. For other uses, see PRY (disambiguation). This article is about the country. For other uses, see Paraguay (disambiguation). Republic of Paraguay República del Paraguay (Spanish) Tetã Paraguái …   Wikipedia

  • History of Venezuela — Infobox Country native name = República Bolivariana de Venezuela conventional long name = Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela common name = Venezuela official languages = Spanish demonym = Venezuelan capital = Caracas latd=10 |latm=30 |latNS=N… …   Wikipedia

  • Aché — Infobox Ethnic group name = Achéphoto caption = Aché aiming into the canopy headerstyle = background:#ccf; labelstyle = background:#ddf; header1 = label1 = data1 = The Aché (pronounced Ah·CHAY) Indians are a traditional hunter gatherer tribe… …   Wikipedia

  • river — river1 riverless, adj. riverlike, adj. /riv euhr/, n. 1. a natural stream of water of fairly large size flowing in a definite course or channel or series of diverging and converging channels. 2. a similar stream of something other than water: a… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”