Kristina M Gjerde, founding member of the DSCC, mother of the High Seas and protector of the deep ocean died on December 26th 2025.
.Kristina was born in California and graduated a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law specialising in conflict prevention and admiralty law. During a scuba diving trip to Palau in the 1980s she became interested in ocean protection and was awarded a two-year fellowship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution which led to more that 30 years of work in the development of progressive international law for the marine environment.
A pioneer and visionary she was an early champion for the deep sea and its protection from bottom trawling, deep-sea mining and other threats, and helped to found the DSCC in 2004, serving on our Steering Group for 20 years.
Kristina was also one of the first to advocate for the protection of the High Seas, work which ultimately led to the 2023 UN Agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, a Treaty which will enter into force on January 17th 2026.
Author of over 200 papers and publications she co-founded the High Seas Alliance, the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative, the Sargasso Sea Alliance and the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative. She was on the Advisory Boards of several organisations, held various fellowships and Professorships, was the recipient of multiple awards and had a deep-sea coral named after her in 2024. In 2025 she founded the Ocean Stewardship Award to support young people entering the field of ocean conservation.
Kristina spent much of her ocean life working for the IUCN a role through which she was able to influence every aspect of marine protection. Her most recent work focussed on a growing concern around the threat posed by marine carbon dioxide removal and mesopelagic fishing.
Sian Owen, DSCC’s Executive Director, said:
With Kristina’s passing the deep sea has lost one of its fiercest protectors, and the ocean conservation community has lost a true friend and fellow warrior. Kristina’s strength, wisdom and grace were at the heart of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition as it was conceived 21 years ago to protect the biodiversity of some of the most remote, least known parts of our planet, and she remained a guiding light as an ex officio member of our Steering Group all the way through. We could always count on Kristina for considered, informed advice – and to point us to the issues she felt were getting the least attention, such as the mesopelagic or ‘twilight’ zone. Kristina will be profoundly missed, by the next generation of ocean advocates who will not benefit as we did from her mentorship and inspiration, and by all of us who were privileged to call her a colleague and a friend. Our condolences to her family.
She is survived by her husband Adam and son Darius and a wide community of colleagues and friends.
Her contribution to ocean protection is immeasurable and incomparable.
Kristina requested that donations should be made to the Ocean Stewardship Award in lieu of flowers. Donations can be made in USD here or GBP here. Contributions to a memorial page can be made here.