Knowledge, as well as knowledge gaps about the oceans, shape the ways that humans govern these spaces, which are often beyond direct human observation. Like other frontiers in Western historiography, the ocean is susceptible to imperialism, anthropocentrism, and resource-driven global capitalism. However, it is also a site of possible alternatives to these dominant approaches because it is relatively ‘undergoverned’ in comparison with land, and its material features can present challenges to enclosure and commodification. What then, is the role that knowledge plays in influencing ongoing tensions among extraction, conservation and intergenerational justice in the oceans? We offer three epistemological lenses that each focus, disperse and enrich understanding of the knowledges pertaining to ocean spaces and governance. First, we examine the role of proprietary data in shaping contemporary resource extraction and accompanying regulatory and conservation debates in the deep seabed. Second, we consider emerging new data technologies and accompanying visualization techniques that aim to democratize oceans governance by making knowledge about oceans and processes on and in them widely available. Finally, we consider decolonized, anti-anthropocentric knowledges about ocean spaces, ‘nations’ and accompanying relationships and responsibilities. In doing so, we identify a disparate array of knowledges -- that we conceptualize as an epistemological frontier -- as central to the future of oceans presently beyond full incorporation into capitalist circuits, but increasingly within their sights
