Sea spray emission fluxes were calculated on the basis of vertical gradients of the aerosol concentration data collected with a laser particle counter during four polar scientific cruises carried out in the summers of 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. The calculated flux values are the first obtained with a gradient method from data measured on the open ocean; such a method has a much better physical basis than any involving calculating fluxes from concentrations measured at one level only. The sea spray generation function we obtained was compared with other functions from the literature. We show that most literature sea spray generation functions are underestimated for the 1--8 ¿m radius range, some of them by a factor of 6.