It is more important than ever to discuss and create policies that center equity and justice in ocean conservation. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and destructive, the fossil fuel industry continues to pollute our common resources, critical habitats are increasingly lost to climate change impacts, and the people most affected are those living on the margins of our society. This is why we founded and continue to support Upwell: A Wave of Ocean Justice. Along with several other conservation partners, we are helping to organize the third Upwell next week on Tuesday, June 3. We are at maximum capacity to participate in-person, but we have plenty of room for you to join us virtually.
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The themes for this year’s Upwell are working with state and local governments to advance ocean justice, defending disaster relief programs from DOGE cuts, and ways for growing people from marginalized communities into leadership roles in conservation.
The Trump administration is waging an all out attack on government agencies and civil society organizations promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This includes upending the work of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission while, according to its acting chair, “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination” in the name of civil rights, dismantling programs that support disabled people and the organizations that serve them, and threatening to investigate large philanthropies for their DEI-related activities.
These attacks are not just based in racism and sexism, they are often simply absurd and petty. As examples, the U.S. Department of Defense deleted references to the Enola Gay World War II aircraft for including “gay” and to the military service of national hero Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in Major League Baseball.
These attacks are harming many facets of our society, but are particularly acute for ocean conservation efforts. On his first day in office, Trump rescinded Biden’s Executive Order 14096 Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All. And in the following days science agencies across the government disbanded their DEI initiatives and sought to identify and remove staff who worked on DEI.
Government websites that once hosted DEI plans and strategies are now deleted, including the Ocean Justice Strategy released by the White House in 2023, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Equity Commitment, NOAA’s Voyage to Justice, the NOAA Equity Framework, and many others. They are also making it more difficult for non-English speakers to access life-saving weather data on government websites.
Beyond ocean conservation, the Trump administration is also pulling DEI funding in other science and conservation sectors. They sent several stop work orders to National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) studies due to their focus on DEI. As just one example, I was on the committee for a NASEM study on Increasing Diversity In the US Ocean Studies Community until it was disbanded in January 2025. On top of proposing to reduce NOAA’s overall budget by 24%, government scientific agencies from the Centers for Disease Control to the National Institutes of Health are being threatened with budget cuts due to reasons assigned as DEI.
Trump is also threatening protected areas on the ocean with his executive order Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness. It calls on the Secretary of Commerce to review all existing marine monuments and provide recommendations to open them to commercial fishing. Trump has already opened 84% of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument – a large marine protected area in the U.S. Pacific territories – to industrial longline and purse seine fishing.
A change in administration must not stop the momentum of ocean justice. Deleting mentions of race, gender, sexual orientation, and ability do nothing to reduce racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism, respectively. Having an open, honest discussion about how best to remove the barriers marginalized peoples face in the United States is welcomed, but proclaiming that these barriers do not exist is disingenuous and deceitful.
Over the first two years of Upwell, one of the emergent themes across panels, speeches, and discussions is that ocean justice makes conservation more durable. The most effective conservation efforts are equitable and just. This was perhaps best exemplified by the opening keynote address at Upwell 2024 delivered by former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary. She thanked all the participants for “making ocean climate action a reality.” Secretary Haaland also announced the release of final management plans for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument and the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument—a significant step in a long process toward effectively managing iconic ocean areas.
Another important theme discussed at Upwell is how to define conservation success. The beyond 30×30 panel in 2024 discussed 30×30, the national and global campaign to protect 30 percent of lands and waters by 2030, and how this framing should be understood as a starting point to increase the pace and scale of conservation rather than a finish line. These ideas are captured in CAP’s Nearshore Ocean Progress framework, which shows how nearshore conservation opportunities at the state and local levels can help protect vulnerable ecosystems. While area targets are important, conservation success must also advance durable, high-quality solutions that benefit healthy communities and wildlife, create jobs, and protect America’s natural and cultural heritage. This includes finding other ways to measure conservation success beyond acreage.
The United States must continue to advance equitable ocean policies that represent the diversity of the country while centering the voices and experiences of historically marginalized communities. The Upwell conference continues to be a place where leaders grow and debate these ideas. The Trump administration’s DEI rollbacks and cuts to scientific and conservation funding will not result in permanent defeat; instead, they provide an opportunity to pause and ponder how to make justice-focused efforts sharper and more effective.