Second Biggest Natural Harbour in the World

Romeo

Romeo

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Some advertising for the Ocean to City Race (http://www.oceantocity.com/) mentioned that Cork had the second biggest natural harbour in the world. I did a google search assuming that Sydney was the biggest. Oh what a can of worms. It seems that most folk say Sydney is the biggest natural harbour, but some say it is Pearl Harbor, with Mahon Port in Minorca in second place. Poole harbour is claimed by some, but it seems a bit on the shallow side to count.... but BBC coast gives it second spot, without saying which is in first. Vancouver also claims second spot, and Falmouth Claims third spot, with no mention of Cork! Kaipara in New Zealand also claims a second. And then there is San Fransisco Bay.

Who could be right?

Really looking forward to Cork Ocean to City, and to enjoying the second largest natural harbour in the world.
 
Scapa Flow looks quite big compared to Cromarty after looking at Google Maps.

I was under the impression that Hong Kong was up there with the big boys but I couldn't get everything in on the same scale as the other ones I looked at, and I don't know where the harbour limits are either so it's probably not.
 
Scapa Flow 120 sq miles according to Wiki. Of course you can park your battleship pretty well anywhere in it, which is not the case with some of the shallower places.
 
San Francisco Bay: 1040 to 4100 sq.km, depending how many sub-bays are included.
Kaipara Harbour, NZ: 947sq.km.
Port Jackson ('Sydney Harbour'): 55 sq.km.
Poole Harbour: 36 sq.km.
Couldn't find any figures for Cork harbour. It's not small, but tiny compared to the first two above.
There are claims that Falmouth harbour is the third deepest in the world. Can't see it being the third biggest.

Mahon doesn't get much of a look-in: the whole of Minorca is substantially smaller than SF Bay. Mahon harbour isn't really very big at all.

Cromarty Harbour, as said, dwarfs all of them (at least after a few drams).

The question, though is rather contrived: what defines a natural harbour? If it's a superbly sheltered inlet but so remote no ships use it, is it still a harbour?
 
I claim that the whole of the Solent including Southampton Water is a harbour; it meets any reasonable definition, being a clearly defined body of sheltered water used by seagoing shipping and having port facilities.

What about the Morbihan?

or the whole of the Clyde estuary?

(sorry about that, Poole)
 
According to Wikipedia, Trincomalee in Sri Lanka is the 2nd biggest natural harbour in the world with 1630 hectares of water
 
I grew up sure in the knowledge that Poole is the second largest harbour in the world. You can bring out all the statistics you want, it won't make any difference!
 
Romeo said:
Some advertising for the Ocean to City Race (http://www.oceantocity.com/) mentioned that Cork had the second biggest natural harbour in the world. I did a google search assuming that Sydney was the biggest. Oh what a can of worms. It seems that most folk say Sydney is the biggest natural harbour, but some say it is Pearl Harbor, with Mahon Port in Minorca in second place. Poole harbour is claimed by some, but it seems a bit on the shallow side to count.... but BBC coast gives it second spot, without saying which is in first. Vancouver also claims second spot, and Falmouth Claims third spot, with no mention of Cork! Kaipara in New Zealand also claims a second. And then there is San Fransisco Bay.

Who could be right?

Really looking forward to Cork Ocean to City, and to enjoying the second largest natural harbour in the world.
Click to expand...

Milford Haven?
 
Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay), is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers 1,930 square kilometres (480,000 acres) and the shore stretches roughly 264 km (164 mi). Although it is extremely shallow for its size, most of the bay is navigable. The deepest portion is only 24 metres (79 ft), and half the region is shallower than 8 m (26 ft). The volume of the water in the bay is around 25 cubic kilometres (6.0 cu mi).

Almost fully enclosed by land except for small entrance. Provides shelter from the exposed seas of the Bass strait So at what point is a harbour defined?
Seeems like a question of semantics..
 
Does a body of water stop being classified as a harbour once it reaches a certain size?

Too big an area isn't a 'harbour' in the sense of haven from the open sea as it doesn't have the required sheltering characteristics. Perhaps there are separate nautical and geographical definitions? I think this sort of distinction would have to be applied if Cork's claim is to with stand scrutiny.
 
It's entirely a matter of definitions. When is an enclosed body of water a harbour? Some are too big, and have enough fetch for the sea to build up making them useless. If you just look at the shape and not the scale, the Baltic Sea, Mediterranean and Black Sea would count as harbours - they are entirely enclosed, with narrow entrances! So part of the definition of a harbour has to include some words about size and depth, and probably proximity to centres of population; a harbour that doesn't serve as such is probably not a harbour.

Port Foster (Deception Island) must be in the rankings somewhere - about 35 square km, and it was used as a safe haven during the sealing and whaling days. But being in an active volcano must rather degrade its utility!
 
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