A new stretch of water could about to be declared the world’s smallest sea.

Residents of a bay on Croatia’s Adriatic coast are hoping that the place they have always called the Karin Sea can be officially designated the world’s smallest sea, bringing more tourism and more environmental protection.

The Karin Sea, located 30 km east of the coastal city of Zadar and which is home to protected marine life such as dolphins and sea turtles, covers an area of only about six square km and locals say it is so small that a swimmer can cross it in a few strokes.

Tomo Aracic, head of the Karinska Riviera tourist association, says there are plans to apply to Guinness World Records to have the Karin Sea designated the world’s smallest sea. At present, the smallest is Turkey’s Sea of Marmara, by Istanbul, which connects the Black Sea through the Bosporus to the Aegean Sea through the Dardanelles.

The Karin Sea has been marked as a sea on maps for centuries. In 1781 cartographer Giuseppe Antonio Grandis named as Mare di Carin on the map of Dalmatia.

Guinness defines seas as “smaller bodies of water than oceans, but still large water bodies, party enclosed by a land mass and connected to an ocean.”

“This is the most beautiful sea for me. If we manage to do this, then it will be really great that [the sea] is known about,” said local resident Danko Vivodinac.

The Sea of Marmara is currently recorded as smallest sea in the world. It is 280 km long and around 80 km wide at its widest point. The total surface area is 11,350 square km. It is in Turkey and connects the Black Sea through the Bosporus to the Aegean Sea through the Dardanelles.

The largest sea on earth is the South China Sea at around 3,500,000 square kilometres.