TURNING THE TIDES

Hoʻohuli Ana I Ke Kai (Turning the Tides)

By advancing ocean education and public awareness, we are working to turn the tide on deep-sea mining and protect the Ocean for future generations.

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The deep ocean is Earth’s last largely intact ecosystem. It helps regulate the climate, stores vast amounts of carbon, produces much of the oxygen we breathe, and sustains marine life across the planet. Yet it is increasingly being targeted as the next frontier of industrial extraction through deep-sea mining.

 

For Indigenous Peoples across the Pacific, the ocean is not a resource frontier. It is ancestor, food system, medicine source, migration pathway, teacher, and relative. Decisions being made today about the future of the deep ocean will have consequences that extend far beyond mineral extraction, shaping the future of marine biodiversity, climate resilience, cultural survival, and our collective relationship with the living world.

 

Hoʻohuli Ana I Ke Kai (Turning the Tides) is RISE Earth Initiative’s ocean protection program dedicated to increasing public understanding of deep-sea mining and supporting efforts to protect the ocean from irreversible harm. Rooted in Native Hawaiian values of stewardship, responsibility, and reciprocity, the program works at the intersection of Indigenous rights, ocean justice, environmental education, and public awareness.

 

Through research, storytelling, community engagement, educational resources, advocacy, and movement-building, we help make complex ocean governance issues accessible to the public while elevating Indigenous perspectives that are too often excluded from decision-making processes. We collaborate with Indigenous leaders, scientists, researchers, legal advocates, ocean defenders, and frontline communities working to safeguard the ocean for future generations.

 

We are operating within a narrow window of opportunity. Unlike many extractive industries, commercial deep-sea mining has not yet begun at scale. The choices made in the coming years will determine whether one of Earth’s largest and least understood ecosystems remains protected or is opened to industrial extraction. By building awareness, strengthening community leadership, and supporting informed public dialogue, Hoʻohuli Ana I Ke Kai seeks to help turn the tide toward a future where the ocean is protected, respected, and allowed to thrive.