text: how many ocean currents are there?   the planet is approximately 71% water and contains (5) five oceans, including the arctic, atlantic, indian, pacific and southern. their borders are indicated on the world image (right) in varied shades of blue.    for many years only (4) four oceans were officially recognized, and then in the spring of 2000, the international hydrographic organization established the southern ocean, and determined its limits. those limits include all water below 60 degrees south, and some of it, like the arctic ocean, is frozen.   (oceans by size)  #1 pacific (155,557,000 sq km) larger map  #2 atlantic (76,762,000 sq km) larger map  #3 indian (68,556,000 sq km) larger map  #4 southern (20,327,000 sq km) larger map  #5 arctic (14,056,000 sq km) larger map   see in http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/oceans.htm