Shipping Traffic
Most maritime traffic between the Atlantic Ocean and the North and Baltic Seas passes through the Strait of Dover, rather than taking the longer and more dangerous route around the north of Scotland. The strait is the busiest international seaway in the world, used by over 400 commercial vessels daily. This has made safety a critical issue, with HM Coastguard maintaining a 24-hour watch over the strait and enforcing a strict regime of shipping lanes.
In addition to the intensive east-west traffic, the strait is criss-crossed from north to south by ferries linking Dover to Calais and Boulogne. Until the 1990s these provided the only surface-based route across it. The Channel Tunnel now provides an alternative route, crossing underneath the strait at an average depth of 45 m (150 feet) underneath the seabed. The town of Dover gives its name to one of the sea areas of the British Shipping Forecast.
Read more about this topic: Strait Of Dover
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