A warm, busy sea between Arabia and India, crossed for thousands of years by monsoon-driven trading ships.
Area
3,862,000 km²
Ocean basin
Indian
Location
The ancient sea of the monsoon trade
Average depth
about 2,730 m
Maximum depth
about 4,652 m
Salinity
~36 ppt
Temperature
Warm, 24–30°C
Region
Between the Arabian Peninsula & India
About the Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea forms the north-western arm of the Indian Ocean, bordered by India, Pakistan, Iran, Oman, Yemen and the Horn of Africa. The seasonal monsoon winds reverse across it twice a year, and ancient mariners used them to sail vast distances. Today it carries much of the world’s oil and hosts a deep, low-oxygen zone that shapes its unusual sea life.
Did you know?
Sailors have ridden its predictable monsoon winds to trade between Africa, Arabia and India for more than two thousand years.
Highlights
- A 2,000-year-old monsoon trade route
- A major modern oil-shipping lane
- Holds one of the world’s largest low-oxygen zones
Photo gallery
Life in the Arabian Sea
Creatures, seabirds and marine plants — including some of the rarest and strangest — that live in these waters.
Creatures of the deep
Whale shark
The largest fish alive — a spotted, harmless giant that strains plankton from the sea.
Dugong
A gentle seagrass-grazing “sea cow” of warm Indo-Pacific coasts, cousin to the manatee.
Hammerhead shark
Its wing-shaped head is packed with sensors that detect prey buried in the sand.
Manta ray
A gentle giant that “flies” through the water on wings up to seven metres across.
Seabirds
Frigatebird
A pirate of tropical skies; the male balloons a scarlet throat pouch to court mates.
Marine plants & algae
Mangrove
Salt-tolerant coastal trees whose tangled roots shelter young fish and buffer storms.
Turtle grass
A tropical seagrass whose meadows feed turtles, manatees and dugongs.
Surface & deep in the Arabian Sea
The sea is warm where the Sun reaches it and cold far below. Flip between the sunlit surface and the deep water to feel the difference — these are typical figures for a sea.
Sunlit surface
22°C
typical surface temperature
Seas warm strongly at the surface in summer, but their deeper water stays cold and still — the sunlight simply never reaches it.
Recorded range for the Arabian Sea: Warm, 24–30°C