Rising sea levels require new styles of oceanic research that speak to environmental and decolonial themes. Much oceanic research focuses on the surface of the ocean, tracing movements of people, ideas and objects.  An oceanic humanities equal to the present must engage with both human and non-human aspects of the ocean, with the depth and the surface. Such a project must also decolonize the histories of oceanic space, providing new approaches to aesthetic understandings of water.