"die See" refers to the sea in general, not to a specific body of water, unless it is part of a name, like "Nordsee". The English word "sea" is also sometimes

"die See" refers to the sea in general, not to a specific body of water, unless it is part of a name, like "Nordsee". The English word "sea" is also sometimes used in this sense, but it's less apparent since "the" carries no gender: "He liked living close to the sea." - doesn't really refer to a specific sea or ocean even though the definite article has been used. (I'm happy to be corrected if this is an ungrammatical sentence since I'm not a native English speaker)