American Mediterranean Sea  The American Mediterranean Sea is a name for the combined watershed of the Mississippi River Basin and the waterbody of the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The name is not recognized by the USGS, the International Hydrographic Organization or other international hydrological bodies. The American Mediterranean has a surface area of 4.319 million km2 and an average depth of . Its basins include those of the southern Caribbean: The Venezuelan, the two Colombians, the Magdalena River and the Gulf of Darién; and the Yucatan Basin. It also contains the Mexican and the Mississippi Basin, both of the Gulf of Mexico. The American Mediterranean is considered one of the oceanic marginal seas. In addition to numerous small islands, large and small groups of islands, and islets, it includes the large islands of Cuba, bordering the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean; of Jamaica, Hispaniola, and of Puerto Rico. All of these islands are among the West Indian islands that separate the American Mediterranean from the Atlantic. Between the islands, the American Mediterranean Sea contains the following straits: the Florida Straits, the Windward Passage (Paso de los Vientos), the Mona Passage (Canal de la Mona), the Anegada Passage to Guadeloupe Passage, the Dominica Passage to Martinique Passage, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent. Within the Mediterranean, the Straits of Yucatán to the Gulf of Mexico connect with the Caribbean, and by the Panama Canal, built in the 20th century, it is connected to the Pacific. The American Mediterranean Sea drains approximately in North America and Caribbean South America; it is the 2nd largest sea watershed. The watershed depends on South American water bodies such as the Magdalena River with , as well as the Guajira Peninsula and the Gulf of Venezuela. Central American drainages include those of/to the Belize River, Gulf of Honduras, Caratasca Lagoon, Nicaraguan Caribbean Lowlands, and the Colorado River in Costa Rica. In North America, the sea mostly drains by the Mississippi River basin of , to the east of the Continental Divide of the Americas, while it drains approximately from the Rio Grande and from the Yucatan Peninsula.