Management and Conservation of Renewable Marine Resources in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden region: UNEP Regional Seas Reports and Studies No. 64

The Red Sea is a narrow-elongated body of water running NNW-SSE between the land masses of Africa and Arabia. At its northern end it forks to form the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba while, in the south, it meets the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean through a narrow strip of water 26km wide and < 200m deep (Morcos 1970), the Bab-el-Mandab, between Djibouti and Perim in South Yemen (PDRY). The Gulf of Aden forms an integral part of the northwest Indian Ocean.