open sea vs sea

open sea

noun
  • That part of the sea out of sight of land. 

  • A sea open to all nations, i.e. not a mare clausum. 

sea

noun
  • A large body of salt water. 

  • A body of salt water smaller than an ocean, generally forming part of, or connecting with, an ocean or a larger sea. 

  • Living or used in or on the sea; of, near, or like the sea. 

  • A very large lake of liquid hydrocarbon. 

  • A lake, especially if large or if salty or brackish. 

  • The swell of the sea; a single wave; billow. 

  • A constant flux of gluons splitting into quarks, which annihilate to produce further gluons. 

  • The ocean; the continuous body of salt water covering a majority of the Earth's surface. 

  • A large, dark plain of rock; a mare. 

  • Anything resembling the vastness or turbulence of the sea. 

How often have the words open sea and sea occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )