# Countries with three or more uninterrupted sea coasts **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [September 20, 2025, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217 "2025-09-20T05:07:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/1 "2025-09-20T05:07:22Z")
I’m going to guess that trivia questions belong in this category. What countries have 3 or more uninterrupted sea coasts? The coasts all have to be on a single contiguous territory of that country. Exclaves and islands do not add to the total, but rather each has their own coast count. Any continuous coastline, uninterrupted by territory of another country, counts as one, even if the name of the body of water changes from one part to another. Coastlines on lakes and rivers do not count. (For the purposes of this question, the Caspian Sea, Dead Sea, Sea of Galilee, and any other inland body of water that has the word “Sea” in its name, are considered lakes.) Example: the USA has only two coasts: East Coast and West Coast. The South Coast is continuous with the East Coast, so it doesn’t add to the total, even though one is on the Atlantic Ocean and the other is on the Gulf of Mexico. Alaska has its own count (1) and each of the Hawaiian Islands have their own count (also 1). Feel free to use any reference including ChatGPT here. I already asked ChatGPT and got a mixed list of correct and incorrect answers, but the correct ones mostly listed the wrong set of coasts. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/2 "2025-09-20T05:19:19Z")
Some that leapt to mind: - Canada (Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic oceans) - Russia (Pacific, Baltic, Arctic…Black Sea too) - Turkey (Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Aegean Sea) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/3 "2025-09-20T05:19:47Z")
Like Spain? The coasts north and south of Portugal and the coast east of the Gibraltar enclave. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/4 "2025-09-20T05:20:30Z")
Please reread the part of the question about continuous coasts, even if they border on different bodies of water. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/5 "2025-09-20T05:21:35Z")
I do not know what that means. These distinctions may be arbitrary. Your questions also seems arbitrary. Going with the maps. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/6 "2025-09-20T05:24:22Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > These distinctions may be arbitrary. Your questions also seems arbitrary. Yes, the question is intentionally arbitrary in this regard. If I didn’t want the arbitraryness, I’d have asked it differently. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/7 "2025-09-20T05:25:30Z")
Then Russia seems to fit. Or not…it is a helluva long line line to draw but I suppose you could claim it all as one thing per your definition. Canada too. Heck, I can get from Chicago in the middle of the US to any port in the world by boat (I know you excluded that). ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/8 "2025-09-20T05:32:36Z")
Saudi Arabia would also qualify if I understand the criteria correctly. I suspect most of the candidates will be countries that surround two or more independent coastal enclaves. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/9 "2025-09-20T05:37:51Z")
I meant for this to be a trivia question where everyone comes up with their own list, not a community exercise. Should have put that in the OP. Too late now. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/10 "2025-09-20T05:42:03Z")
I came up with my own list. You said I was wrong per your criteria. Not sure what else I should do. I think I met the criteria. If you want to say you can draw an unbroken line by water from Kamchatka to Crimea then I am not sure what counts. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/11 "2025-09-20T05:43:51Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I meant for this to be a trivia question where everyone comes up with their own list Can you, at least, tell me if Spain and Saudi Arabia qualify? Otherwise, I have no idea what you are asking for. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/12 "2025-09-20T05:50:22Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Can you, at least, tell me if Spain and Saudi Arabia qualify? Otherwise, I have no idea what you are asking for. Yes they do. For what it’s worth, my list has 7 entries. It’s possible I may have missed one or two. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/13 "2025-09-20T05:53:18Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Yes they do. For what it’s worth, my list has 7 entries. It’s possible I may have missed one or two. On what planet does Spain count but not Russia or Canada or Turkey? I’m interested in the distinctions you are making. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/14 "2025-09-20T05:57:10Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > On what planet does Spain count but not Russia or Canada or Turkey? I didn’t say all of them were wrong answers. It’s just that the lists of coasts you gave violated the continuous coast definition in the question. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/15 "2025-09-20T06:11:36Z")
Spain and Saudi quality because of Gibraltar and Qatar? ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/16 "2025-09-20T06:17:11Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > I’m interested in the distinctions you are making. The distinction is about continuous coastlines irrespective of what body of water they happen to be on. If the count was according to bodies of water, the US would have many, many coasts, including Massachusetts Bay, Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound, and dozens of smaller bays. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/17 "2025-09-20T06:18:41Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Spain and Saudi quality because of Gibraltar and Qatar? Yes, of course. Is this a difficult concept? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/18 "2025-09-20T06:23:40Z")
Nevermind ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/19 "2025-09-20T06:24:07Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Please reread the part of the question about continuous coasts, even if they border on different bodies of water. Ok…so why does Canada or Russia or Turkey not count? Why do they not meet your criteria? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217/20 "2025-09-20T06:29:44Z")
Canada has 2 by this definition. Start in Vancouver and go clockwise. Coast 1 ends when you hit Alaska. Coast 2 starts at the other side of Alaska and ends at Maine. Russia would count. Black sea, Baltic Sea, Pacific + Artic. Turkey has 2. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-with-three-or-more-uninterrupted-sea-coasts/1023217.md?page=2)