{"id":2078,"date":"2010-12-01T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-01T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=2078"},"modified":"2024-09-18T15:16:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T19:16:57","slug":"naturalists-notebook-how-many-oceans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/naturalists-notebook-how-many-oceans\/","title":{"rendered":"NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK: How Many Oceans?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

What’s the answer to that question? One? Five? Seven? How many oceans are there on the planet? I guess it depends on whom you ask. Most people give the answer as four or five or seven. But others give my favorite answer: one world ocean with five major geographical subdivisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at a globe or a flat world map, you can see that the ocean is one interconnected body of water that covers roughly 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. The ocean is separated into ocean basins by the continents. Where no land is found, we use arbitrary lines to delineate the major geographic sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The specific names of the ocean basins come in handy when talking about shipping or sailing. Saying that a cruise ship is on the ocean is very broad, but saying that the ship is cruising in the South Pacific is more descriptive and gives a better picture of where the ship is sailing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an informal survey of 131 marine educators from the mid-Atlantic states, there was no clear majority. Forty-seven said that there is one ocean and 46 said there were five. Nineteen respondents said there were seven oceans, and 15 answered four oceans. What a conundrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is definitely confusion about the number of oceans on our planet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Map
Courtesy NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In North Carolina, the hydrosphere is a main topic in eighth-grade science. The eighth-grade science textbook, published in 2005, states that “the global ocean is divided by the continents into four major oceans.” It mentions the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Arctic as the four major divisions, as does the 2005 edition of Marine Biology<\/em> by Castro and Huber<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, the National Geographic Society<\/a>, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> (NOAA), the Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence<\/a> (COSEE ), the College of Exploration<\/a>, and the National Marine Educators Association<\/a> (NMEA) developed and adopted standards for ocean literacy. The first fundamental concept says “There is one ocean with many ocean basins… .”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant Gross, in his seventh edition of Principles of Oceanography<\/em><\/a>, says that there are four major ocean basins. His list includes the Atlantic, the Indian, the Pacific, and the Southern. In 1995, Gross considered the Arctic as an extension of the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many years, oceanographers contended that there were four major ocean basins: Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific. In spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO ) decided to delineate a fifth ocean basin, taking parts of the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Pacific Oceans to create the Southern Ocean from 60o south latitude all around the continent of Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So who (or what) is the IH ? The International Hydrographic Bureau<\/a> (IHB) was officially created in 1921 after sporadic meetings in Washington, DC, St. Petersburg (USSR), and London (England). In 1970, the IH B became an international organization headquartered in Monaco, with a current membership of 80 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IHO ‘s priorities include standardizing nautical charts, maintaining reliable and efficient methods of conducting hydrographic and oceanographic surveys, and keeping the science of hydrography current.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my informal survey, someone asked about the difference between “ocean” and “sea” \u2014 I must admit that I wasn’t certain of the answer, so I had to do a little research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines the two terms this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n