Personhood for the Moana

New Zealand has pioneered granting legal personhood to geographical entities, the most recent being Taranaki Mounga in 2025. I turn attention to the sea. Māori have known this domain with personal intimacy (via naming of marine spaces, attributing them taniwha, clothing them in narrative) yet the dominant resource‐centric view of oceans is tenacious. The industrial titans of fishing, drilling and mining dominate not just oceanic activity but also its imaginary. I draw on a range of personal experiences in watery places, as well as a range of writers, to explore the possibility of the ocean/moana being a candidate for personhood.