Ocean Power and Geopolitics

Global powers including Pacific Island nations are in a race to secure and divide up the last frontier of the world including the ocean’s seafloors for exploitation of its resources using the false promises and narrative of Blue Economy or Blue Growth.  Advancements in technology mean that depths once considered unfeasible are increasingly accessible and will allow multinational corporations to plunder oceanic resources, in a race to secure food security for countries external to the region and to provide them alternative and secure sources of minerals and energy.

Much of the rush to secure the Pacific Ocean clashes with Pacific peoples’ world view and understanding of the ocean, an understanding based on a mixture of profound inherited knowledge of sea currents, winds, and marine life, based on livelihoods use, ancient history of oceanic currents through migrations, traditional fishing and knowledge passed down orally.