Myth: There are many different oceans.
Fact: In reality, ocean scientists consider Earth to have only one ocean with several distinct ocean basins. The effects to one part of the ocean (say, in the Indian Ocean Basin) will eventually affect the whole ocean.

Myth: We know most of what there is to know about the ocean.
Fact: In reality, we have explored less than 5% of the ocean. We have explored more of the moon’s surface than we have of Earth's ocean.

Myth: Mountains on land are much taller than the ocean is deep.
Fact: The average depth of the ocean is about two miles deep. The deepest point in the ocean is roughly seven miles deep - much deeper than Mt. Everest is tall!

Myth: We get most of the oxygen we breathe from land plants and rain forests.
Fact: Biologists estimate that we get around 80-90% of the oxygen we breathe from the ocean, primarily from tiny plant-like creatures called phytoplankton.

Myth: The ocean is limitless, and pollution is the biggest problem facing the ocean.
Fact: The ocean is far from limitless.

• 30% of the fish populations assessed in the US are over fished or are being fished unsustainably. An increasing number are being driven to toward extinction.
• Coastal development claims more than 20,000 acres of wetlands and important nurseries for ocean species every year.
• Every eight months, nearly 11 million gallons of oil runs into the ocean -- the same amount as was lost in the Exxon Valdez spill.
• Climate change is changing our ocean and threatening entire habitats and species.