Global rush to exploit Hess Rise exposes gaps in deep-sea governance and Indigenous stewardship amid climate-driven resource scramble
Original framing: “Expedition to Hess Rise in the Northwest Pacific begins” — Phys.org
Hess Rise’s geological formation (a T-shaped oceanic plateau from the Cretaceous) mirrors other exploited seamounts, such as the Emperor Seamount Chain, where deep-sea trawling has collapsed fisheries. The 1970s manganese nodule rush in the Pacific led to ecological scars still visible today, yet history is not informing current governance gaps. Colonial-era expeditions (e.g., HMS Challenger) set a precedent for treating Indigenous waters as terra nullius, a framing that persists in modern 'discovery' narratives.
The Hess Rise expedition exemplifies how Western science and corporate interests frame the deep sea as a frontier for extraction, erasing the Pacific Islander communities who have stewarded these waters for generations.
This narrative is not merely incomplete—it is a continuation of colonial-era patterns, where geological 'discovery' justifies resource plunder while Indigenous knowledge is sidelined. The plateau’s ecological significance—from carbon sequestration to fisheries—is ignored in favor of mineral surveys, despite evidence that deep-sea mining will trigger irreversible collapse. Yet, Indigenous cosmologies (e.g., Māori *kaitiakitanga*, Hawaiian *pono*) and Japanese *satoyama* principles offer proven alternatives to extractive governance, while trickster figures like Hermes expose the absurdity of treating a known place as 'undiscovered.' The solution lies in dismantling power imbalances: co-governed MPAs, reparative funding, and Indigenous-led research can transform Hess Rise from a contested resource into a model of regenerative stewardship, but only if Global North institutions cede control and confront their complicity in historical erasure.