Updated for Java Edition 26.3 (October 2026).
The cold ocean is the shallow ocean of the cooler parts of the Overworld: dark blue water over a gravel floor, with kelp, seagrass, cod and salmon. Despite the name, it doesn’t freeze. In our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds, one was within 1,000 blocks of spawn in 61% of worlds. Come for kelp, cold ocean ruins and shipwrecks.
| Dimension | Overworld |
|---|---|
| Where it generates | Off cool coasts, between beaches or stony shores and the deep cold ocean |
| How common | 4.4% of the surface in our sample (about 1 block in 23) |
| Distance from spawn | Median 845 blocks; within 1,000 blocks in 61% of seeds, within 2,000 in 88% (our sample) |
| Mobs | Cod, salmon, squid, nautiluses, drowned; glow squid in underground water. No dolphins |
| Notable blocks | Kelp, seagrass, a gravel floor with patches of sand and clay |
| Structures | Cold ocean ruins, shipwrecks, ruined portals; trial chambers and mineshafts under the seabed. No ocean monuments |
| Climate | Temperature 0.5, downfall 0.5 (rain, not snow) |
| Biome ID | minecraft:cold_ocean |
| Added in | Java Edition 1.13 (Update Aquatic, 2018) |
Cold ocean vs deep cold ocean
The deep cold ocean is the deeper water further out from the coast. In our sample, 30% of a cold ocean’s edge touched deep cold ocean, and 78% of a deep cold ocean’s edge touched cold ocean, so the deep version is nearly always ringed by the shallow one. Both have the same mobs and plants. The difference that matters is the ocean monument, which only generates in the deep version.
| Feature | Cold ocean | Deep cold ocean |
|---|---|---|
| Depth | Shallower | Deeper |
| Ocean monuments | No | Yes |
| Fish and other mobs | Same: cod, salmon, squid, nautiluses, drowned; no dolphins | |
| Kelp and seagrass | Both | |
| Cold ocean ruins, shipwrecks | Both | |
| How common (our sample) | 4.4% of the surface | 2.3% of the surface |
| Median distance from spawn (our sample) | 845 blocks | 1,166 blocks |
| Within 1,000 blocks of spawn (our sample) | 61% of seeds | 42% of seeds |
So in our sample of 300 Java 26.3 seeds, the cold ocean covered almost twice as much of the world as the deep cold ocean and sat about 300 blocks closer to spawn. To reach a monument in cold water, find the cold ocean first, then sail away from land until the floor drops out of sight.
How to find a cold ocean
Start at the coast. In our sample, a cold ocean’s edge touched deep cold ocean 30% of the time, beach 21%, plain ocean 9%, stony shore 9% and forest 6%. A sandy beach can lead to any ocean type, so check the water: cold ocean water is a darker blue than the plain ocean. If you are already at sea in plain ocean, sail toward colder land.
These three Java 26.3 seeds have a cold ocean a short trip from spawn. Each coordinate is inside the biome, checked at block level.
| Seed | Cold ocean at | From spawn | Map |
|---|---|---|---|
-2258079525112163263 |
X 126, Z 354 | 205 blocks | Open on the map |
-9161542029816856561 |
X -394, Z 246 | 501 blocks | Open on the map |
-6199097596942346036 |
X 174, Z -114 | 230 blocks | Open on the map |
With cheats on, /locate biome minecraft:cold_ocean finds the nearest one (use minecraft:deep_cold_ocean for the deep version). Or paste your seed into the biome finder to see every ocean type around spawn. These are Java seeds; the same number on Bedrock gives a different world. Every one of our 300 seeds had a cold ocean within 5,000 blocks.
What lives in a cold ocean
Cod and salmon both spawn here in schools. The cold and deep cold oceans are the only oceans that have both: the plain ocean has cod but no salmon, and the frozen oceans have salmon but no cod. Squid spawn here too, and glow squid turn up in dark flooded caves under the floor.
Do drowned spawn in cold oceans?
Yes. Drowned spawn in the water in the dark, as in every ocean. Some carry a trident, which is the only way to get one in survival, so a cold ocean near spawn is a fair place to hunt for one at night.
Nautiluses, but no dolphins
Since Java 1.21.11 the nautilus spawns here, as in every ocean. It is neutral, and you can tame and breed it with pufferfish, then ride it with a saddle. Pufferfish don’t spawn in cold water, so catch some with a fishing rod or bring them from a warm ocean. Dolphins don’t spawn in cold oceans at all; look for them in the plain, lukewarm and warm oceans.
Kelp, ruins and shipwrecks
Kelp and seagrass grow on the floor. Kelp is the reason to come here early: it grows fast, smelts into dried kelp, and nine dried kelp make a dried kelp block, a furnace fuel. The frozen oceans next door have none, so stock up here before heading into the ice.
Cold ocean ruins, small piles of stone bricks and mossy stone bricks, sit on the seabed and can hold loot chests. Shipwrecks are the other common find; their map chest holds a treasure map to a buried treasure chest on a nearby beach. Ruined portals can sit on the seabed too. There are no ocean monuments here: for one, sail on to the deep cold ocean or use the ocean monument finder. Bring a Respiration helmet or a potion of water breathing for longer dives.
Cold ocean vs warmer oceans
The ocean you are in decides the fish, the plants and which kind of ruins you find. Here is how the cold ocean compares with the shallow oceans on its warm side:
| Feature | Cold ocean | Ocean | Lukewarm ocean | Warm ocean |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fish | Cod, salmon | Cod | Cod, pufferfish, tropical fish | Pufferfish, tropical fish |
| Dolphins | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Kelp | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (coral and sea pickles instead) |
| Ocean ruins | Cold (stone brick) | Cold (stone brick) | Warm (sandstone) | Warm (sandstone) |
| How common (our sample) | 4.4% | 6.9% | 4.6% | 2.1% |
For a full list of all nine ocean types, see the ocean biome page.
What changed in 2025-26
Nothing changed in cold oceans in Wilderness Bound (Java 26.3, September 2026).
In Mounts of Mayhem (Java 1.21.11, December 2025), the nautilus was added. It spawns in all ocean biomes, cold oceans included, and you can tame it with pufferfish and ride it.
In Spring to Life (Java 1.21.5, March 2025), the cold ocean was listed as a cold biome for the new farm animal variants. Pigs, cows and chickens don’t spawn here naturally, but one spawned here (with a spawn egg, for example) comes out as the cold variant.
Source: the official 1.21.11 and 1.21.5 release notes.
On Bedrock, version 1.21.130 stopped dolphins spawning in the cold and deep cold oceans (Bedrock 1.21.130 changelog). Java already had no dolphins here, so the two editions now match.
How we measured
The numbers on this page come from our own seed map engine, running Java Edition 26.3 world generation. We generated 300 random seeds and sampled every 16th block across a 10,240 by 10,240 block square centered on each world’s spawn. “How common” is the cold ocean’s share of those samples; “distance from spawn” is how far the nearest cold ocean sample was. The seeds above were picked from the same run, and each coordinate was re-checked at block level.
