The Bali Sea is a regional sea which is part of the Australasian Mediterranean Sea in the southwest Pacific Ocean.

It is classified as a distinct sea for navigational purposes but is usually grouped with the Flores Sea for oceanographic purposes. It is centered at around 116 degrees E and 8.5 degrees S and is bordered by Bali and Sumbawa to the south and Madura to the west, and abuts the Java Sea to the north and the Flores Sea to the east. The Bali Sea covers an area of about 45,000 km2 and has a greatest depth of 1590 meters (m). It is mostly underlain by a small trough extending to the west of the Flores Trough and is bound by sills to the south (the 200 m Bali Strait sill and the 220 m Lombok Strait sill) and by a narrow, 600 m deep passage connecting it to the Makassar Stait to the north.

The circulation and water mass properties are continuous with the contiguous Flores and Java Seas to the east and north, repectively. Most of the oceanographic interest in the Bali Sea is concerned with its role in the Indonesian throughflow of Pacific Ocean waters into the Indian Ocean, with most if not all of this flow passing through the aforementioned Bali and Lombok Straits.

Further Reading:

• Physical Oceanography Index
• Rhodes W. Fairbridge, editor. The Encyclopedia of Oceanography. Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1966.