def get_sea_names():
global _SEA_NAMES<EOL>if _SEA_NAMES is None:<EOL><INDENT>resource_text = get_data("<STR_LIT>", "<STR_LIT>")<EOL>parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_blank_text=True)<EOL>root = etree.fromstring(resource_text, parser)<EOL>buf = {}<EOL>for seaname in root.findall('<STR_LIT>'):<EOL><INDENT>name = seaname.find('<STR_LIT>').text<EOL>buf[name] = seaname.find('<STR_LIT>').text if seaname.find('<STR_LIT>') is not None else '<STR_LIT>'<EOL><DEDENT>_SEA_NAMES = buf<EOL><DEDENT>return _SEA_NAMES<EOL>
Returns a list of NODC sea names

source of list: http://www.nodc.noaa.gov/General/NODC-Archive/seanames.xml