Remembering Kristina Gjerde: The Mother of the High Seas and a Champion for Ocean Protection

January 21, 2026

The ocean remembers its guardians.

On December 26, 2025, the ocean lost one of its fiercest protectors. Kristina Maria Gjerde—often called the mother of the High Seas—passed from this world, leaving behind a legacy written not only in law and policy, but in the living fabric of the ocean itself. Kristina was a member of the Mission Blue family, serving on the Hope Spots Council since its inception. 

Kristina Gjerde and Dr. Sylvia Earle worked together over many years as complementary forces in global ocean conservation—one shaping the legal and policy architecture needed to protect the ocean, the other galvanizing public awareness, science, and moral urgency.

Their collaboration was rooted in a shared belief that the ocean is a living system deserving of protection beyond national boundaries. 

Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder and CEO of Mission Blue, shared, “Kristina’s positive impact on the fate of the blue ‘High Seas’ half of the planet, owned by no one and everyone, is beyond measure. Her deep knowledge, experience, and wisdom, coupled with uncanny insight, wit and good humor, have shaped enduring policies that benefit all of life on Earth, humans very much included.”

Born in 1957 in Walnut Creek, California, Kristina’s path to the sea was shaped first by intellect and justice. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law, specializing in conflict prevention and admiralty law. Yet it was during a scuba diving trip to Palau in the 1980s, suspended above coral gardens alive with color and quiet purpose, that her life’s work truly surfaced. In that moment, the ocean became not only a place of wonder but a call to action.

A two-year fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution followed—an experience that would launch more than three decades of pioneering work at the intersection of science, law, and diplomacy. Kristina devoted her career to shaping progressive international law for the marine environment, often advocating for places beyond sight, jurisdiction, and political convenience.

Long before the world was ready to listen, she spoke for the High Seas—the vast blue commons beyond national borders. Where others saw emptiness, she saw responsibility. Where others saw complexity, she saw moral clarity. Her persistence, vision, and unmatched expertise helped lay the groundwork for the 2023 United Nations Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ), a landmark treaty that entered into force on January 17, 2026. For her role in helping bring this historic agreement to life, Kristina was awarded the Haub Prize for International Environmental Law and Diplomacy.

“In a world of over 8 billion people, individuals still can make a difference. Kristina was one of those rare change makers. Long before others realised the importance of the High Seas, she was instrumental and active in garnering the world’s attention and actions to get it better protected. Her legacy is the opportunity the planet now has to properly protect the watery half of our world, beyond the jurisdiction of individual countries—the true blue heart of planet Earth,” said Dan Laffoley, Chair Hope Spots Council, Mission Blue.

She was also among the earliest champions of the deep ocean itself—warning of the dangers of bottom trawling, deep-sea mining, and other emerging threats to ecosystems that had taken millennia to form. In the darkness of the abyss, she found urgency, beauty, and an ethical imperative to protect what humanity barely understands.

Kristina’s influence rippled outward through an extraordinary body of work. She authored more than 200 papers and publications and co-founded many of the most influential ocean coalitions of our time, including the High Seas Alliance (and the small lunch meeting that started it all), the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative, the Sargasso Sea Alliance, and the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative. She served on advisory boards for organizations such as the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Edinburgh Ocean Leaders, and she shaped future generations as an Adjunct Professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

“During my time staffing the Sargasso Sea Alliance (into the Commission), she taught me to take risks, do big things, and hold my own at the men’s table—with poise, steadiness, and compassion”, said Kate Killerlain Morrison, Managing Director, Mission Blue.  

Her contributions were recognized through numerous honors, including the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas’ Fred Packard Award and a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation supporting her work on high seas governance reform. In 2024, a deep-sea coral was named in her honor—a fitting tribute for someone whose life was dedicated to protecting what grows quietly, resiliently, far below the surface.

Even toward the end of her career, Kristina continued to look ahead. In 2025, in partnership with Synchronicity Earth, she founded the Ocean Stewardship Award to support young people entering the field of ocean conservation, ensuring that the work she began would continue with renewed energy and care. 

Much of Kristina’s ocean life was spent working through the IUCN, where her influence touched nearly every aspect of marine protection worldwide. She navigated institutions and negotiations with the same grace she brought to collaboration—firm in principle, generous in spirit, and unwavering in her belief that the ocean deserved guardians who would not look away.

“Kristina was a fierce champion for the ocean. Within the Mission Blue family, Kristina will always be remembered as a trusted partner, a tireless advocate, and a dear friend. Her legacy lives on in every protected place, every strengthened treaty, and every person she inspired to stand up for the ocean,” shared Shannon McIntyre Rake, Hope Spots Program Manager, Mission Blue.

She is survived by her husband, Adam de Sola Pool of Cambridge, Massachusetts; her son, Darius of Chicago, Illinois; her sister, Doreen; her brother, Michael; and a vast, global community of colleagues, collaborators, students, and friends who were shaped by her brilliance and kindness.

Kristina Maria Gjerde will always be part of the Mission Blue family. Her wisdom, generosity, and unwavering commitment to protecting the ocean—especially its most remote and vulnerable places—shaped our work and strengthened our resolve. She leaves an indelible mark on the global ocean community and in our hearts. She will be deeply and forever missed.

The ocean remembers her.

And because of her, it is safer, stronger, and more hopeful than it has ever been.