Geography Class For People Who Shouldn't Need It

Gayathri Vaidyanathan of Discovery News, you and I need to have a little chat.

Yesterday, Gayathri wrote an article entitled "World's Most Dangerous Oceans Identified", talking about the maritime locations containing the highest number of shipwrecks from 1999-2011. Southampton Solent University ran a study for the World Wildlife Fund on where ships wrecked and why. As it turned out, most commonly it's older ships- at least 20 years old- that have opted to run things on the cheap. Nearly half the ships foundered (that means they sunk).

Where were the locations? As it's showing in the article, the South China Seas and East Indies is the most dangerous area with 293 accidents in the time period. The East Mediterranean and Black Sea, and the North Sea and British Isles, were two and three.

You ready for the chat, Gayathri? You ready for the chat we're going to have? Here comes the chattery.

Those aren't oceans, you dip.

Depending on who you ask, there are four or five oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and perhaps the Southern Ocean (the sea surrounding Antarctica). None of the three listed areas are even parts of oceans- the South China Sea is to the west of the Philippines, with the Pacific to the east; the North Sea is to the east of the United Kingdom, with the Atlantic to the west; and the Mediterranean? Come on now. Seas are not oceans. Seas are smaller and more enclosed by land than oceans. In the case of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, completely enclosed. I would expect someone who writes for Discovery- the people who air Deadliest Catch, which takes place on a sea- to know this.

I suppose it could be worse. You could be the guy who took a dare to drink a bottle of soy sauce in some new, higher-level-of-stupid version of the tablespoon-of-cinnamon thing. But seriously, this chat shouldn't be happening.