Identifying the "Seven Seas"

This blog topic arose because yesterday I encountered a controversy over how many oceans there are. Most elementary schools teach the existence of four oceans - Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic - but there is inconsistency as to whether the "Southern Ocean" or "Antarctic Ocean" should be added to that list as the fifth ocean:

In the spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization, based in Monaco, designated all the water below 60 degrees south latitude the Southern Ocean...

Since then, cartographers and others, including the National Geographic Society and the U.S. Geological Survey, have debated whether the Southern Ocean should, in fact, become part of the lexicon.

Some European countries don't recognize it, and the most recent query to the U.S. Board on Geographic Names doesn't specify whether the new ocean has been accepted. The board's approval is necessary before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration places the name on its charts. So far, the name isn't there.

While reading about this I not surprisingly encountered the term "Seven Seas," which is unexpectedly ancient, with an earliest known reference in Sumeria in 2300 B.C. The term became more widespread in the Medieval era, but the specific seas depended on the location of the narrator.

In the ninth century, a Muslim author wrote:

"Whoever wants to go to China must cross seven seas, each one with its own color and wind and fish and breeze, completely unlike the sea that lies beside it..."

The "seven seas" of Arabic literature were the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Khambhat, the Bay of Bengal, the Strait of Malacca, the Singapore Strait, the Gulf of Thailand, and the South China Sea.

In medieval Europe, the seven seas were the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Persian Gulf. Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea (including the Adriatic Sea and the Aegean) and the Arabian Sea (which is part of the Indian Ocean). Those are the ones in blue in the image above.

There's more at the Wiki page, but this is already more than you probably need to know...