Southern Ocean

In July 1999 the Foreign Names Committee (FNC) of the United States Board on
Geographic Names approved the name Southern Ocean for use in United States
Government publications.

United States hydrographic authorities define the Southern Ocean as the body
of water encircling Antarctica, with a northern limit of 50 degrees South
latitude.

Dr. David Karl of the University of Hawaii proposed the name to the Board's
Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (ACAN) in June 1998, citing its
widespread use in professional and scholarly literature.  In September 1998
ACAN forwarded the proposal, with its endorsement, to the Foreign Names
Committee staff who, in turn, presented it to the FNC in December 1998.

Between December 1998 and July 1999 the Foreign Names Committee staff followed
FNC policy and procedure to determine suitability of the name Southern Ocean
for the high seas feature.  According to Board policy such a feature would
necessarily require a conventional name, that is, an English language name in
current widespread use.

Dr. Karl's proposal, with subsequent endorsements from the National Academy
of Sciences and the National Science Foundation, demonstrated widespread usage
of the name in scientific and technical literature.  The FNC staff consulted a
number of standard English language geographic reference works and determined
that the Southern Ocean appeared in some, but not all widely available
gazetteers and atlases.  Works that cited the feature (either cartographically
or textually) included the Columbia Gazetteer, National Geographic Atlas of the
World, and Rand McNally Atlas of the Oceans.  The use of Southern Ocean in
David Attenborough's television series The Life of Birds (1999) and in Harper's
School Geography (1876) reflected the temporal span of the name's usage.

In an activity that paralleled the FNC's deliberations, the International
Hydrographic Organization (IHO) sought to determine acceptance within the
international maritime community of the name Southern Ocean.  Through a poll
of member nations, the IHO concluded that a majority (by a two-to-one margin)
of responding nations favored the name Southern Ocean (over Antarctic Ocean)
and that the trend of modern usage favored this name.  The IHO further
reported that there was overwhelming acceptance among maritime nations of the
existence of the ocean, and that the upcoming draft of the International
Hydrographic Bureau's Special Publication No. 23 Limits of Oceans and Seas
would include reference to the Southern Ocean.  The IHO, however, is likely to
recommend 60 degrees South latitude as its northern limit.

The Foreign Names Committee concluded that acceptance of the name Southern
Ocean fell within the parameters set by Board policy, and fulfilled the need
for a standard name for a feature that required toponymic references in
official publications of the United States Government.

The standard gazetteer entry for the feature is:

Southern Ocean, OCN, 60 degrees 00' 00" S 90 degrees 00' 00" E