Natural Geography of the World Ocean

Although natural geographers have long been engaged in complex research on continents they have traditionally believed that the study of the World Ocean falls under the purview of ocean scientists. Consequently the comprehensive study of oceanic nature including its complex description zonal-regional characterization and natural geographical zoning has lagged behind. However the responsibility for conducting a comprehensive study of the World Ocean should not lie solely with oceanological sciences but also with the science of natural geography.Just as the natural geography of continents has developed within the system of Geographical Sciences taking into account the composition of Earth's sphere comprising both continents and oceans the natural geography of the oceans should also be developed to a similar extent.