Update:

Here are some images I rendered out with some possible issues....

Water Casts Shadows

Water Casts NO Shadows

Water Reflection/Refraction Number = 15 (5 is normal)

Water Bump Set to 0.2 (1/5 of original size)

Water Set to Pure Blue to Check Ground Level

**So, I ended up liking the shadow casting version better as it's darker and a bit more rich, but I think we can now rule out that it's:

1.  a shadow issue
2.  the ground plane above the open ocean terrain
3.  amount of internal reflections/refractions within the material.
4.  a bump map issue

Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah to problems like this...haha.  The globs are identical in each version.  Help is appreciated.**

-Ryan Spaulding
 VueRealism.Com