For Nicole Yamase, protecting the ocean isn’t just her job — it’s her birthright.
Yamase, who is Indigenous to the Pacific island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia, or FSM, is a member of the Dipwinwai clan. Her clan’s eni, their family guardian, is the nohno en sansed: the stingray, also translated as the mother of the ocean.
“I’m very honored to inherit Dipwinwai from my mom, my grandmother, and my great-great-grandmothers before them,” she said. “A lot of my identity and responsibility comes from my cultural heritage.”
As a high schooler in Chuuk State, she watched abandoned boats leach oil into the ocean and saw the coral reef whiten. “I thought, how do I help?”
For Yamase, the answer was studying to become the first citizen from the FSM to receive a PhD in marine biology. She also became the first Pacific Islander to visit the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the ocean.
“This is the home of my ancestors,” Yamase said. “If I want to save the world, I have to save the ocean.”
Now, she works in Honolulu at OneReef, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Pacific island communities in protecting their reefs. Yamase seeks to support Indigenous Pacific peoples with technology and education to complement their traditional knowledge, such as by training local officials in Yap State on the latest reef imaging techniques. She also pushes her fellow researchers to avoid extractive practices and the pitfalls of “parachute science.”
It’s not always easy — in Hawaiʻi, Micronesian people like Yamase face persistent racism and entrenched educational disparities, another problem Yamase is dedicated to changing. “We’re amazing in that we come from this culture that can lead the world in these global issues,” she said. “We can and should be a leader in the oceans.”