of earths surface   The Arctic Ocean takes up approximately  of the Earths surface The Pacific takes up about  The Atlantic takes up close to  and The Indian ocean takes up   if you add all those up          that seems to me to mean that it is referring only to the  of the Earths water surface whatever the correct phrase for that is and not to the entire surface Otherwise this statement seems to indicate that the entire surface of the planet is covered in Ocean unless Im missing something of course which is entirely possible