Leyte (Gulf)

The bay has a shape approximating an isosceles triangle , whose height is about 105 kilometers, and its base is about 90 kilometers, and its area is about 4,700 km².

In the southern part of the bay there is a large island and small islands and . The southwestern part of the bay is in contact with the Surigao Strait .

The following cities are located on the shore of the bay (the number of inhabitants and the year of the census are shown in brackets):

Leyte Gulf served as a theater of operations from October 23–26, 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf , the largest naval battle in history ^[1] . Then the US Army defeated the imperial fleet, for three days the Americans lost about 3,500 people and 6 ships, the Japanese lost about 10,000 people and 27 ships.

In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan swept over the bay, which caused a huge storm tide due to which many people died on the island of Leyte , and serious damage was caused to agriculture and buildings ^[2] .

Historically, Leyte Gulf was famous for its fish resources. Here, herring, shrimps, crabs were caught in large quantities ^{[3] [4]} . However, after fishing with dynamite spreading in local waters, as well as after typhoon Haiyan, which destroyed the hard coral cover, fish in the local waters became much smaller.