The Celebes Sea of the western Pacific Ocean is bordered on the north by the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Mindanao Island of the Philippines, on the east by the Sangihe Islands chain, on the south by Sulawesi's Minahasa Peninsula, and on the west by northern Kalimantan in Indonesia. It extends 420 miles north-south by east-west and has a total surface area of, to a maximum depth of. South of the Mangkalihat Peninsula, the sea opens southwest through the Makassar Strait into the Java Sea. The Celebes Sea is a piece of an ancient ocean basin that formed 42 million years ago in a locale removed from any landmass. By 20 million years ago, earth crust movement had moved the basin close enough to the Indonesian and Philippine volcanoes to receive emitted debris. By 10 million years ago the Celebes Sea was inundated with continental debris, including coal, which was shed from a growing young mountain on Borneo and the basin had docked against Eurasia. The border between the Celebes and the Sulu Sea is at the Sibutu-Basilan Ridge. Strong ocean currents, deep sea trenches and seamounts, combined with active volcanic islands, result in complex oceanographic features.
On 23 May 2013, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the Government of the Republic of Indonesia signed an agreement to establish the boundary line that delimits the overlapping Exclusive Economic Zone between the two countries. It has been agreed that north of the boundary line will be under the jurisdiction of the Philippines and Indonesia be south of the boundary line.
On the North. The Southern limit of Sulu Sea and the Southwest coast of Mindanao. On the East. A line from Tinaca Point, the Southern point of Mindanao, to the North point of pulau Sangihe Besar thence through the pulau-pulau Sangihe to Tanjung Puisan, the Northeast extreme of Celebes . On the South.The North coast of Celebes between tanjung Puisan and tanjung Binar and thence a line to Tanjung Mangkalihat in Borneo, the Northern limit of Makassar Strait . On the West. The East coast of Borneo between Tanjung Mangkalihat and Tanjong Labian, the Southern limit of the Sulu Sea.
Marine life
The Celebes Sea is home to a wide variety of fish and aquatic creatures. The tropical setting and warm clear waters permit it to harbor about 580 of the world's 793 species of reef-building corals, which grow as some of the most bio-diverse coral reefs in the world, and an impressive array of marine life, including whales and dolphins, sea turtles, manta rays, eagle rays, barracuda, marlin and other reef and pelagic species. Tuna and yellowfin tuna are also abundant. In addition to high abundance of fish caught in the Celebes sea, this sea also yields other aquatic products like sea tang.
The Celebes Sea is underlain by an oceanic plate with a mid oceanic spreading in the center part. This plate is subducted to the south and north. A number of seismic surveys and research drillings were done in this area to gather geological information. The has been described in the Geology of Indonesia Wikibook.
