Beaufort Gyre rotating system. This is why anything floating, including fresher water tends to move toward the centre of the system. Indeed, there is a slight bulge in the centre of the Beaufort gyre when it is rotating in its predominant clockwise direction. If, as is speculated, as the Arctic Ocean becomes a heat collector resulting in a low pressure, counter clockwise rotating system, the Beaufort Gyre can be expected to follow suit and send the fresher water outward to be captured by the transpolar current. This could well bring up the saltier, slightly warmer Atlantic water which lies under the floating,
South Seas South Seas The term South Seas commonly refers to the South Pacific. Geographically, all areas to the south of Panama's degree of latitude belong to the South Sea. Central archipelagos are the Society Islands (French Polynesia/Tahiti), the Samoa-archipelago and the Fiji islands. The term South Sea is often used synonymously for Oceania and in a narrow sense for Polynesia (Polynesian Triangle). The Hawaii islands, New Zealand (Aotearoa) and the Easter Island ("Rapa Nui") build the vertices. The Spanish conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa coined the term "South Sea" when he traveled through the isthmus of Panama and named the ocean