pe Verde and move westward into the Caribbean Sea;
hurricanes can occur from May to December, but are most frequent from
August to November

_#_Terrain: surface usually covered with sea ice in Labrador Sea,
Denmark Strait, and Baltic Sea from October to June; clockwise warm
water gyre (broad, circular system of currents) in the north Atlantic,
counterclockwise warm water gyre in the south Atlantic; the ocean floor
is dominated by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rugged north-south centerline
for the entire Atlantic basin; maximum depth is 8,605 meters in the
Puerto Rico Trench

_#_Natural resources: oil and gas fields, fish, marine mammals (seals
and whales), sand and gravel aggregates, placer deposits, polymetallic
nodules, precious stones

_#_Environment: endangered marine species include the manatee, seals,
sea lions, turtles, and whales; municipal sludge pollution off eastern
US, southern Brazil, and eastern Argentina; oil pollution in Caribbean
Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea;
industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in Baltic Sea, North Sea,
and Mediterranean Sea; icebergs common in Davis Strait, Denmark Strait,
and the northwestern Atlantic from February to August and have been
spotted as far south as Bermuda and the Madeira Islands; icebergs from
Antarctica occur in the extreme southern Atlantic

_#_Note: ships subject to superstructure icing in extreme north
Atlantic from October to May and extreme south Atlantic from May to
October; persistent fog can be a hazard to shipping from May to
September; major choke points include the Dardanelles, Strait of
Gibraltar, access to the Panama and Suez Canals; strategic straits
include the Dover Strait, Straits of Florida, Mona Passage, The Sound
(Oresund), and Windward Passage; north Atlantic shipping lanes subject
to icebergs from February to August; the Equator divides the Atlantic
Ocean into the North Atlantic Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean

_*_Economy
_#_Overview: Economic activity is limited to exploitation of natural
resources, especially fish, dredging aragonite sands (The Bahamas), and
crude oil and natural gas production (Caribbean Sea and North Sea).

_*_Communications
_#_Ports: Alexandria (Egypt), Algiers (Algeria), Antwerp (Belgium),
Barcelona (Spain), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Casablanca (Morocco),
Colon (Panama), Copenhagen (Denmark), Dakar (Senegal), Gdansk (Poland),
Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Fin