Aral Sea Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake (one with no outflow) lying between Kazakhstan (Aktobe and Kyzylorda Regions) in the north and Uzbekistan (Karakalpakstan autonomous region) in the south. The name roughly translates as "Sea of Islands", referring to over 1,100 islands that had dotted its waters; in the Turkic languages "aral" means "island, archipelago". The Aral Sea drainage basin encompasses Uzbekistan and parts of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and Iran. Formerly the fourth-largest lake in the world with an area of , the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that
Seto Inland Sea Channel, which in turn connects to the Pacific Ocean. The western part of the Seto Inland Sea connects to the Sea of Japan through the Kanmon Straits and to the Pacific through the Bungo Channel. Each part of the Seto Inland Sea has a separate name in Japanese. For example, refers to the strait between Ehime, Yamaguchi, and Ōita prefectures in the western portion of the sea; is the open expanse west of the Geiyo Islands, near Hiroshima prefecture; and refers to the expanse between Yamaguchi prefecture and Suō-Ōshima. There are also many straits located between the major islands, as